The Pharaoh's Beloved
by leeniejs
Summary: "I don't think I could ever spend forever without you. You are everything to me," Ahk said. A young girl stumbles upon the museum's secret night life. What happens years later when she returns to understand what happened to her that night? Ahk/OFC. Friendship leading into romance. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Hello! If you are new to my stories then you should know I never post a story until it is completely finished. You can be sure that this story will not be abandoned or held hostage for reviews. I plan to update this every other day until it is complete.

This is an Ahkmenrah/ female OC story with friendship, romance, and original chapters as well as following the second and third movies.

I owe so much praise to my beta Arlothia. She brings my writing to another level.

And a wonderful thank you to Rayne Storms Ink for the cover art for this story. Thank you for your unwavering belief in me and your never ending encouragement.

Obviously, I do not claim ownership of anything relating to the Night at the Museum.

The first chapter begins a few years before the start of the first movie.

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Izzy Porter had only recently become a trouble maker. She hadn't always had a taste for rule breaking, but ever since her father passed away and her mother tried to move on, it just seemed to be so much harder for her to fall in line and be a good girl, especially for a woman who could so easily forget about the man she said she would love forever. Izzy loved her father and didn't want to forget him, and she thought it unfair that her mother was trying so hard to do just that.

So Izzy had caused trouble at school this past year. It was mainly to inconvenience her mother so she would have less time to spend with her new boyfriend, Roger. Though, if you asked Izzy why she had started misbehaving at her ripe old age of 12, she would only shrug off the question and say, "because it's fun, I guess."

She hated Roger. He was trying too hard to get into her good books. He always showed up with some small gift for her like a flower or jewelry or a new scarf. He didn't understand that she wasn't some girly-girl little flower child. She never liked any of his gifts, except the iPod he bought for her birthday. He never called her Izzy like everyone else, either. He always shortened it to one syllable and called her Iz, like it was so hard to say Izzy.

So she showed her frustration by breaking rules. She hadn't done anything really big in terms of trouble yet. She wrote cuss words on the bathroom walls, called other students names, and told off the teachers for their stupid rules that only ever applied in school anyway. She had started a fight once, which had left her black and blue and in detention for a week, because one of her fellow students made fun of her curly hair. She may have come out of the fight a little worse for wear, but seeing the black eye from her first punch on the boy that had insulted her made every bruise worth while.

She skipped school one day, not that it did much. She came into school the next day without an explanation from her mother and they only gave her an unexcused absence. She would have to have several more of those before anyone bothered to notice and call her mother.

Despite the evidence of her actions, Izzy was a good kid at heart. She was a budding, stubborn preteen and obviously knew everything, but she wasn't old enough to realize she resented her mother's boyfriend simply on principle. Roger was a genuinely good man that loved her mother just as much as she loved him. While Izzy felt shafted when her mother found a new man to love, her mother needed to move on to heal. Roger had been a blessing in disguise when they had first met. He had been a shoulder to cry on and always provided a wise word when she needed it. Roger had helped her heal from the loss of the first love she ever had. But everything that was great about Roger in her mother's eyes only gave Izzy more and more reasons to hate him.

With the anniversary of her father's death around the corner, she had planned her first real act of rebellion. Today was their class field trip to the Museum of National History. She had spent the day remarkably reserved as the students observed the exhibits. When the time was finally right, she slipped away from her group and let her fellow classmates go back to school without her. She pulled her feet up on the toilet seat, the farthest from the exit, and left the door open. She marveled quietly in her plan. A locked door would seem suspicious but an open stall garnered no attention.

Izzy's plan was to spend the night in the museum. She didn't want to steal anything. A night away from her mother might worry her enough for her to actually notice her again. She had been too focused on Roger to have time for Izzy. When she wasn't spending time with him in person she was always on the phone with him. Her mother barely managed a brief 'how was your day?' when she walked in the door.

In all honesty, her mother did try to reach out to her, but Izzy was too caught up in her hatred and rebellion to notice. In her mind, she was the tortured protagonist in her personal story where anything she saw was something working against her and her wishes.

She wondered how long it would take her mother to realize she wasn't coming home that night. Her teachers didn't seem to notice that she hadn't returned and they had left hours ago.

She had checked the schedule upon arriving at the museum. It closed promptly at 5 pm. She had been staring at her watch for the better part of 10 minutes when it finally hit closing time. Excitedly, she leaped out of the bathroom and silently stole down the hall. The lights were still on, meaning that the staff was still here cleaning or whatever it was their job entailed. She made her way into the Egyptian section, passing various statues of gods and goddesses and ancient artifacts. She touched as many as possible and loved the thrill of doing something she knew she shouldn't.

Finally she entered upon her true destination. The tomb of Ahkmenrah. She made her way past the statues of Anubis and kneeled behind the sarcophagus, not wanting to be seen from the door if anyone were passing by. Her heart pounded from the mixed emotions and adrenaline she was feeling. There was no one around but the thrill of possibly being caught had her nearly jumping out of her skin. She let her hands trace over the unfamiliar hieroglyphs with awe.

Her father had loved everything that was from ancient worlds, Egypt especially. He always said he had been born in the wrong millennium and he must have been an important adviser to a pharaoh in a past life. His passion had led him to Egypt on an archeological dig. He never found a single artifact but he came back with the greatest treasure he had ever laid eyes on. An Egyptian woman. Her mother.

Her father had instantly fallen in love and, after months of convincing, had brought her back to America with him. He had treasured his wife and daughter, always remarking that his wife was the greatest treasure he ever found, while Izzy was the greatest treasure he had ever made.

Unwanted tears began to roll down her face in memory of her father. In a place she truly felt comfortable, where she finally felt at home, she still couldn't stop the sobs that escaped her. She let her face fall against the sarcophagus as she sobbed out her sorrow. It was cool to the touch and felt wonderful on her heated face.

A thumping from beneath her startled her so intensely that she threw herself back as if she had been shocked. With her back against the wall, Izzy noticed a golden hue falling upon her from above and she turned her shocked and tear-stained face up to see the source. The Tablet of Ahkmenrah was glowing. She turned back around as the thumping continued and realized that the sarcophagus was shaking, accompanied by horrible screams.

She jumped up immediately. Someone had obviously been locked away in the tomb, probably a victim of the school bullies that visited in droves. She knocked on the lid of the sarcophagus, trying to get the person's attention.

"Hello?" she called. "Are you okay?" Everything grew silent for a moment. The sarcophagus stopped moving, the thumping and screaming immediately ceasing after she knocked.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" she asked.

The shouting sounded again and though it was muffled, it sounded distinctly like the patterns of speech. The occupant hit the top of the sarcophagus to punctuate the pauses they took from their desperate screaming.

With a strength only born from a severe adrenaline rush and desperation, Izzy managed to shove the heavy lid of the sarcophagus to the side, partially revealing the ornate coffin within. She didn't stop to admire the beauty before she unlocked both sides of the coffin and was immediately thrown back by the force of the lids being tossed across the room. She landed on her butt with a thump that couldn't be heard over the din of the heavy lids clattering to the floor.

To her astonishment and absolute horror, what emerged from the tomb was not a person locked away on a cruel prank, but a mummy. The real life mummy of Ahkmenrah. It rose out of the tomb, the bandaged head cocking to the side as it heard her heavy breathing. Its hands rose up and began to unravel the bandages around its head.

Having had enough rule breaking and horror to last a life time, she scrambled to her feet and took off towards the door. The mummy behind her cried out in a language she vaguely knew as Egyptian, having heard her parents speak it at home, though at the moment she didn't care what the thing had said. But the words he spoke commanded the statues of Anubis to move and block her path, their twin staffs crossing in front of her, blocking her exit. Running at full speed and trying to stop in an instant didn't work in her favor. She skidded to a halt, nearly falling over and bumping almost gently against the staffs, though she could find nothing gentle about being held hostage by a mummy and his statues. She whirled around as the mummy finished tearing off the bandages from his head. What she saw shocked her more than the gaunt, sallow, and mummified face she imagined.

He looked completely normal. He couldn't have been a day older than 25. His features, the sun-kissed skin paired with dark hair and eyes, were classic Egyptian. He looked at her with a mixture of emotions she couldn't identify.

She could imagine what she looked like to him. A tan-skinned, frizzy-haired child with fear written in her honey colored eyes. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before he spoke to the statues again in Egyptian.

She felt the staffs lift away and she didn't stay a second longer than she had to. She fled to the closest fire exit and ran out into the cold night air with the alarm blazing loudly in her ears, making her heart pump faster and urging her to leave, leave, leave!

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	2. Chapter 2

Another chapter for you!

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In the years after the incident at the museum, Izzy never spoke a word about what she had experienced. She knew no one would believe her and didn't see the point of useless arguing. And if she had insisted that what she saw was real, then her mother would surely send her for mental help. She had been back twice in the last few years in the attempt to uncover the mysteries of that night, and though she had stood at the tomb for as long as she could without looking suspicious, she never saw any signs that it was anything but the normal resting place of a great pharaoh.

It ate at her, not knowing how all that had happened, or if it had actually been real. But of course it was. She had had a bruise on her butt for almost a week from when she had been knocked to the ground. And while she tried to forget the whole thing, it haunted her for years to come. On occasion it would creep into her dreams, playing on her mind and sanity, taunting her sense of mental health with things that made no sense at all.

Only after the first year had passed did the horror abate and she realized the man had done nothing frightening, save for climbing out of a tomb wrapped in bandages. He had not hurt her or even tried to attack her. In fact, he had let her go after seeing how frightened she was.

Years went by and the memory slowly faded into the back of her mind, but it was never truly gone. It lay dormant like an old acquaintance brought forth upon trigger words such as 'museum', 'pharaoh', or 'jackal'. But that didn't happen all too often, especially since she spent most of her days as a cashier at the local grocery store.

So when the opportunity presented itself for a part-time job as a night guard at the Museum of Natural History, the memory of that night itched at her subconscious like a half-forgotten task she had just remembered. With the obsession in her mind, and such a rich opportunity awaiting, she applied, interviewed, and was hired in a few short days.

Tonight was her first night on the job where she would be learning the ropes from the other night guard, Larry. So far her schedule only consisted of weekends, but, as Larry was trying to start his own business and raise a young son, it could also expand to include any days off Larry requested.

It was ideal really. She could finally satisfy her curiosity about the museum as well as have a second job to begin saving money for her future. Not to mention she would most likely be sitting in front of a bunch of screens at a desk all night as the new night guard. She could probably get some work done on the book she had been meaning to write for ages now.

Dressed in her uniform, Izzy arrived at the museum half an hour before her shift began. She made her way to the information desk, intending to ask where she could find her mentor, when she saw a man dressed in the same uniform as hers. Considering there were only two night guards, she felt confident in assuming that this man was Larry.

"Excuse me," she said. "I'm Izzy Porter. Are you Larry Daley?"

The man looked up at her as she spoke, noticing, as Izzy had, that they were indeed wearing the same night guard uniform. He had a kind face and short brown hair.

"Yep, that's me." He held out his hand and she shook it. "It's great they finally hired another night guard. It's difficult trying to manage so much on my own."

"Do you mean the museum or just life in general?"

"A bit of both actually." He smiled good-naturedly at her. "I'll show you around tonight and then you'll be on your own starting this weekend. How about a quick tour to start off?"

"Sounds great," she said.

Larry began to lead her around the museum, mentioning general directions to exits and doors that needed to be kept locked each night, which was all of them. Larry struck her as a slightly awkward, though kind man. He remained friendly and helpful through the whole tour, even making a few quips about monkeys stealing keys. With such ridiculous jokes she could tell he was a father. The dad jokes were an easy tell.

At the end of the tour he led her into the small security office and showed her to her new desk. He began to dig around the cluttered room, pulling items out from piles of things she couldn't identify. Ages old paperwork perhaps?

"Alright, I've got a belt, a flashlight, and a key chain for you." He handed her each item as he named them. She clipped the belt to her waist and then attached the keys and flashlight to it. He led her back out to the lobby and, since it was now 5 pm, locked up the front doors for the night. With that done, he checked his watch and turned to stand awkwardly in front of her.

"Okay, there's really no easy way to say this next part, so I'm just going to come out and say it," Larry began with a serious tone. "The exhibits come to life at night. Not like the expression where history comes alive. I mean really alive." He paused to gauge her reaction.

She quirked an eyebrow in contemplation. "When you say alive-" she began.

"I mean in a very real sense. Moving, talking, life... and it's about to happen in-" he checked his watch, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

He pointed behind her and she turned to see the T-Rex skeleton starting to move on its own. Its eyeless skull turned to them as its tail whipped about fiercely. It seemed to fix its unseeing gaze directly on her and she could do nothing as she was rooted to the spot. It opened its jaws and unleashed a horrific roar. It stepped off its plinth, striding decidedly in her direction. Stumbling back a few steps, not daring to look away, she watched its skull lower as its maw opened wide, no doubt to release another roar, or worse, to attack her.

Her fast paced retreat caused her to bump into the wall behind her. She slid down it, eager to put any amount of distance between her and the dinosaur. At that very moment Larry stepped in front of her and held up his hands in front of the skeletal predator.

"Rexy, hey. I told you we were getting someone new, remember. So be nice and I'll have Jed and Octavious play with you tonight, okay?" To her astonishment the T-Rex lowered its body and began to wag its tail like a dog, its mouth hanging open in a tongueless pant. Larry patted the bony snout of the T-Rex and turned to her.

"This," he patted again, "is Rexy. He's a big softy once you get to know him. You can pet him if you'd like. He'll be a good boy."

She looked at Larry like he just asked her to lick slug slime off of the floor.

"Perhaps it's a bit early for that, Lawrence," said a new voice.

Looking around, Izzy saw a well-dressed man in a U.S.V. outfit riding up to them on a horse. Glancing behind him, Izzy realized that the platform of Teddy Roosevelt was empty. When Rexy realized no one was interested in him anymore, he turned and stomped away. Izzy looked back to the former President in awe as he continued talking, this time to her.

"Larry told us there would be a new night guard," he said as he climbed off his horse. He walked up to her and, bending down, held out his hand. She took it firmly and let him pull her to her feet. "Theodore Roosevelt, at your service," he announced, letting go of her hand after a quick shake. "And who might you be, my dear?"

"Izzy Porter," she barely managed.

"Wonderful to meet you, Izzy," he said with a warm smile aimed at her.

Izzy smiled and let out a quiet chuckle. "It's real. It's all real," she whispered to herself. She covered her mouth as she attempted to stifle her laughter. She leaned against the wall for support and continued to laugh louder and louder. After six years she finally had an answer to that night. Her nervous and relieved laughter bordered on hysteria as it rang through the silent lobby. She sunk against the wall and onto the floor again as tears of laughter and relief began to build at the corners of her eyes.

"Is she alright?" she heard Larry ask.

"Everyone reacts to the news differently. Panic and disbelief are the usual suspects but this is the first time I have seen someone laugh at the news."

She fanned herself with her hand, attempting to cool her face and calm her breathing. They couldn't understand. After years of trying to come up with some sort of logical explanation for why a museum exhibit had come to life six years ago and convincing herself she would never know, worrying that she might be crazy, only to realize that she wasn't and that the answers were finally here, felt like Atlas finally having the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.

But before she could ask how any of this was possible, a new voice inquired, "Is everything alright?"

Izzy turned and saw a man walking towards them. Her laughter died in her throat immediately. He was clothed in gold from the crown on his head to the sandals on his feet. The stunning beading of his neckpiece and the polished jewelry on his arms and fingers illustrated not only his wealth, but his status. He was the Pharaoh Ahkmenrah, the man she had seen climb out of the tomb six years ago.

"Right, Ahk, this is Izzy. Izzy, this is Ahkmenrah," Larry said, supplying the introductions.

Ahkmenrah placed his fist over his heart and bowed to her in greeting.

Izzy fought very hard to squash down the squeal that was attempting to escape her throat. An ancient Pharaoh had just bowed to her and every cell in her body screamed at her to respond appropriately, but she didn't have the knowledge of how to return the gesture. Nor, it seemed, did she have the ability at the moment. She could do nothing but gape at him like a fish out of water.

"Are you alright?" the Pharaoh asked.

"I'll be alright, really. It's just a bit..." she paused to find the right word.

"Unexpected?" the Pharaoh supplied.

No. It wasn't unexpected at all. It just finally made sense after the first time she had seen him all those years ago, not that she planned on embarrassing herself any further by telling them that story. Though, not able to find an appropriate answer, she only nodded.

"Are you up for an explanation?" Larry asked Ahkmenrah. "I've got to check on the Neanderthals and make sure they aren't messing with the fire alarms."

"Of course, Larry," Ahk replied.

"Great," Larry said, then turned to her. "Ahk knows all about the magic that brings everything to life here so any questions you have about it, he's your guy. Come find me in the African exhibit when you're done." He walked off down the corridor towards the Neanderthal exhibit he had shown her earlier.

"I'll be off, too," Teddy said. "I don't want to be late for my date." He mounted his horse and smiled warmly at her again. "Welcome to the museum, my dear." He tipped his hat to her and rode off, leaving her with the Pharaoh.

Alone now, Ahkmenrah surprised her by kneeling down and looking at her in concern. She fought the powerful urge to jump up and squeal. She wasn't even sure what was causing that reaction. Fear? Excitement? Nervousness? She had no idea.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked.

"Yes. The shock is going away. I'm fine now."

He sent her a polite smile. "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Ahkmenrah, fourth king of the fourth king and ruler of the land of my fathers."

"I'm Izzy Porter. It's nice to meet you."

'Nice to meet you?' she thought, berating herself. If there truly were Egyptian Gods they would surely damn her for speaking so informally to a pharaoh. But perhaps her status was to blame. How could a mere commoner like herself ever hope to speak and act as eloquently as a true, flesh and blood pharaoh?

Ahkmenrah held out his hand, palm up, and she put her shaking hand in it. He placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Her cheeks blushed furiously.

That's it. She was definitely going to hell. She would have to remember to wave to Osiris as she passed the gates into the underworld.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Izzy," he said. "If you would accompany me to my exhibit I will begin my explanation." He rose to his feet and pulled her up with him.

Izzy let go of his hand as soon as possible, sure that her cheeks were literally on fire. She had never seen him this close before, not that she had taken a great amount of time to study the face of the great Egyptian pharaoh when she had been running away from him in terror. He was incredibly handsome, more so than any celebrity she had seen hordes of fangirls swooning over. She couldn't accurately describe how he made her feel. Was it possible that some people were so divinely handsome that they induced an almost sickening feeling? That was certainly how it felt at the moment, but of course it wasn't because of his looks. The relief, shock, and adrenaline were most likely the cause.

Taking her stable bearing as a sign she was truly alright, Ahk turned and walked back the way he had come, Izzy falling into step beside him as he began to speak.

"I was born over 3,000 years ago in Egypt. My father, the previous pharaoh, had a tablet made in my honor. It is known as the Tablet of Ahkmenrah and it is displayed behind my tomb."

As if on cue, they entered the exhibit and Izzy stopped immediately as the Jackals came into view, their heads turning in their direction and kneeling to welcome their king. Noticing her pause, Ahkmenrah spoke again.

"These are statues of Anubis. They are sworn to protect me and will not harm you." She nodded and moved into the room past the guards. She still didn't quite trust them.

"This is the tablet," he continued as he swept an arm out to indicate the item on the wall. "When the sun sets, the tablet glows a brilliant gold and brings life to all within its range, whether it be a stone statue, a wax figure, or even an age-old mummy."

"That is quite the treasure."

"It is my most prized possession. It travels with me wherever I go."

"So, you've crawled out of your tomb every night for the past 3,000 years?"

"No," he said with only a hint of sadness. "It was only after Larry became the night guard that I was released from my tomb. I owe him a great debt for his kindness. The previous night guards attempted to suppress the exhibits as much as possible. Larry lets us have our freedom around the museum."

Izzy walked around the room, taking in the details of the walls and artifacts with a newfound appreciation.

"That was nice of him," she commented.

"This must be quite a lot to take in. But I must say, you are doing remarkably well compared to Larry."

"It's easier to accept than I thought it would be. I have always heard that museums make history come alive but this one has always seemed much more alive than the rest. Now I know why."

"Have you visited the museum before?" He asked.

For a moment, Izzy considered telling him about her first visit all those years ago but decided against it. "A few times, yes. I was always fascinated with your exhibit. My mother is Egyptian," she explained

He smiled at her words. "I can see it in your features."

"I've only been here about three times but it always felt like I found a missing part of myself. My father met my mother when he was on an exhibition to Egypt. He never found a single thing in the Valley of the Kings but he gained a family. He always said the failure was well worth the reward. Honestly, he never shut up about it." She smiled at the nostalgic feelings that coursed through her. "Everything we did would somehow relate back to Egypt, usually the gods. When I was upset about him leaving for work he would always say something like, 'Do you think the great god Ra cries when the sun leaves the sky?'"

A hearty and deep chuckle brought her out of her memories. She had forgotten that she was speaking to a pharaoh about her silly childhood. She shook herself mentally.

"But that's enough about me. I'm sure you have things to do and I need to find Larry anyway."

"You are welcome here anytime. This is the only place I can call home and it is wonderful to meet someone who thinks the same. It was an honor to meet you, Izzy." He inclined his head to her. She blushed and quickly copied the gesture, some strange and ingrained sense of honor from her heritage overriding all modern aspects of propriety.

"The pleasure was all mine. Thank you." Turning to leave, she had to stop herself from running out of the room before he could embarrass her with further politeness. Only when she was out of the Egyptian exhibit and a few corridors away did she let out a sigh of relief.

She made her way to the African exhibit, passing countless other museum pieces brought to life, only some of which she recognized. When she found Larry, he gave her a more in depth tour of the various displays, this time with the added warnings and safety precautions that had been implemented for these special circumstances. He warned her about the Capuchin monkey, Dexter, and told her to always watch her keys around him. She would need to keep an eye on the Neanderthals to keep them away from fire and technology. Without proper supervision it usually ended badly. Then Larry led her to the hall of miniatures to introduce a couple more of his friends.

"Hey, Jed, Oct, I have someone you need to meet."

Walking up to the benches in the middle of the room, Izzy saw two tiny figures. One was a blond cowboy and the other looked like a Roman general or something; she wasn't sure of the rank.

"Guys, this is Izzy. Izzy, this is Jedediah and Octavious," Larry introduced.

"From the familiar attire I assume you would be the new night guard," Octavious said.

"She'll be filling in on weekends. I'm relying on you guys to help things run smoothly her first few days, alright? So please don't cause any trouble," Larry pleaded.

"Now you listen here, Princess," Jed began sternly, ignoring Larry and addressing her. "We got rules around here. Rule number one: don't manhandle old Jedediah. Number two: just 'cause we're small doesn't mean we don't deserve respect. Number three-"

"I think she gets the point, Jed," Larry interrupted.

Jed threw his hands up in frustration. "Did I not just mention rule number two? Respect the little guys, Gigantor!"

"Right, hey guys, can you play with Rexy this weekend? I'm sure it will help make Izzy's first few days go easier. I got you a new car down in the lobby."

"Well, why didn't you say so sooner? No problem, Gigantor," Jed said with no hint of his previous irritation. Izzy smiled at how easily it seemed Jed could change his attitude.

"It will be an honor to assist you in the coming days, my lady. It is my solemn vow that you will have the assistance of the Roman legions should you require them," Oct spoke with solemn determination.

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," Izzy said.

Octavious bowed to her before he and Jed began climbing down the bench.

"Keep an eye out for those two," Larry cautioned as they continued through the museum. "They can get a little…excited. But if you have any trouble with them just go to Teddy or Ahk. They're the most reliable ones you'll find in here so don't hesitate to go to them for help. Even I still do that sometimes."

The rest of the night went similarly. She met a few of the others around the museum, such as the Huns and Sacajawea. They inspected the last of the exhibits and Larry went over tips and tricks of how to handle things until it was nearly sunrise. Larry announced a ten minute warning over the PA system and they watched as everyone retreated back to their exhibits and took their positions for the coming day.

Teddy came riding up on his horse and smiled brightly at Izzy.

"How was your first night then, my dear? You look like you have handled it well."

She mirrored his infectious smile. "After that initial shock it was alright."

"Will we be seeing you tomorrow night then?" Teddy asked.

"Definitely," she answered.

"Then I look forward to it."

Teddy drew his sword and assumed his position just as the sun came up and Izzy could almost see the living man turning into a wax figure again.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to all that reviewed!

Apologies to those that saw the third chapter when it first went up. I accidentally posted the second chater twice. Sorry!

Please enjoy this chapter all about Ahk and Izzy. This is one of my favorite chapters.

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It was barely after sundown the next day when Izzy found herself soaking wet and running down the halls of the museum away from Attila and his Huns. She was quickly running out of breath as she neared the Egyptian exhibit, hoping for a place to hide until the situation blew over, or at least until she caught her breath. She had barely turned the corner to the exhibit when she slammed heavily into the pharaoh himself. They both fell to the floor and Izzy was glad she seemed lucky enough not to have landed directly on Ahkmenrah.

"I'm so sorry!" she panted out. He sat up and put his hand on his head, noticing his crown had fallen off. She grabbed it off the floor and held it out with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I didn't mean to run into you. Are you okay?"

He took his crown from her outstretched hands and replaced it easily. "I'm fine. Are you alright? Where were you off to in such a hurry?"

"It's not so much a 'to'. It's more of a 'from'." She stood and offered her hand to help him up.

"What are you running from then?" he asked as she helped pull him to his feet.

"Attila the Hun. I think I did something to upset him."

At that moment, Attila and two of his Huns turned the corner and began shouting at her. Ahkmenrah replied calmly in the same language and the Huns began to address him instead. There were a few moments of back and forth between the two men before they seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. The pharaoh turned to her.

"It seems this has been a misunderstanding. They wish to have access to the sports equipment that Larry keeps in storage."

"It sounded like he wanted to kill me," she hissed with a worried glance at the Huns.

"He tends to be enthusiastic and loud. He meant you no harm," Ahkmenrah explained. "I could take you to the storage room if you would like."

"That would be great, thank you," Izzy replied.

"If you would follow me?" he asked.

He turned with a swish of his cape and led them all down the hallways to the storage room, which Izzy unlocked and let the Huns have free reign over the equipment. Satisfied with their findings, Attila and his men parted from them and Izzy sighed in relief.

"Thank you for your help," she said honestly.

"I am happy to be of service."

She pulled out her ponytail, which was barely keeping a few strands held back, and ran a hand through her hair. The formerly straightened curls would not be tamed now that they were wet. Her hair was barely long enough to put into a ponytail when she straightened it. Now that the strands had reverted back to their natural waves there was no way she could pull them out of her face.

"What happened to your hand?" Ahkmenrah asked suddenly.

She turned her right hand up for him to see. A shining red burn shone across her palm. He held his hand out, silently asking to examine it.

"It's just a burn," she insisted, not wanting to make it a big deal, though she laid her hand in his for inspection anyway.

"Hands can be difficult to bandage by one's self. I know where the first aid kit is located. Please allow me to help you." She nodded and followed him to the security office. He retrieved the first aid kit as she pulled up two chairs in front of her desk.

"How did this happen?" he asked.

"The Neanderthals seem to think with Larry gone they could get away with starting a fire indoors. A dagger from one of the exhibits was in the ashes. I didn't realize it was still so hot after I put the fire out. The water was from running away from the Huns. I ran into the oceanic exhibit and the whale sprayed me."

He smiled sympathetically. "It gets easier. Once you learn more about everyone you'll come to know what to expect and how to respond."

"It hasn't been all bad," Izzy admitted. "Jed and Octavious have been entertaining Rexy for me, so that's helped."

Ahkmenrah found the burn cream and opened the small package. He could see the instant relief cross her face as he applied it gently to the wound. Her sleeve slipped up slightly as he tended to her and he saw a metal bracelet with a charm attached.

"An Isis knot?" he questioned.

She pulled up her sleeve to reveal the bracelet more clearly for him. "It was the last gift my father gave to me before he died."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's alright. He developed cancer when I was ten and the doctors only gave him a year to live. He bought me this bracelet a few weeks before he died and asked me to always stay true to who I am."

"Your father seemed to be a wise and caring man."

"He was. That's actually my name. Isis, not Izzy."

He perked up at the familiarity of the name as he reached for a bandage. "Why do you go by Izzy?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Children can be cruel with names. Rather than Isis they called me is-is. It just became easier to go by Izzy. It's easier to pronounce. My father wanted to name me Hathor but Isis it a bit more modern."

"It is a beautiful name. May I call you Isis?" he asked with no small amount of hope evident in his eyes.

"Sure. Do you have a nickname? Ahkmenrah is a bit of a mouthful."

He smiled. "Most just call me Ahk."

"That is a lot easier," she said, returning his smile.

He began to wrap the bandage around her hand and she couldn't stifle her laughter as it bubbled up inside her.

"What is it?" he asked, confused.

"It's nothing really," she said as she pushed her hair out of her face. "My mind is just ridiculous.

"Might I be allowed to know the nature of the joke?"

"I just thought it was strange that I'm being bandaged by a mummy. Sorry." She winced slightly, sure that her words would be a sore spot. He surprised her with a smile.

"No need to be sorry. We are all aware of the reality of the situation." He fixed the bandage in place. "There, all better."

"Thank you." She paused a moment to admire his work before continuing. "You know, you are much kinder than I originally thought."

"Did you think me cruel?" he asked, concerned.

"No," she assured him. "It's just that you being a pharaoh came off as incredibly intimidating at first. But here you are, bandaging my hand and speaking to Huns for me out of the goodness of your heart. I thought maybe you would demand respect and things like that. I wasn't sure how to act around you."

"Not all rulers are cruel," he said.

Izzy nodded. "I suppose I need to learn more about history."

"If you ever need anything, historical or not, you can come to me Isis."

"Thank you, Ahk. I'll remember that."


	4. Chapter 4

A little chapter of Akh and Isis goodness! Thank you to all who have responded to this story!

* * *

Izzy sat at the front desk and watched the museum come to life again. It had been two weeks since her first night and she could still hardly believe it. She had already set up the museum for its residents and figured she had a good hour before she needed to check on anyone. She hunched over her notebook on the desk, deep in thought, writing down ideas that came to her before she could forget them.

"What are you doing?"

Izzy jumped in her chair and twisted around to see Ahk standing next to her looking apologetic for startling her. She had been so engrossed in her task that she had tuned out everything around her and hadn't heard him approach. Even the loud, tinkling, wind chime-like sound from his jeweled clothes hadn't alerted her. She held a hand over her heart to try and stop it from beating out of her chest.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you," he apologized sincerely.

"It's alright. I just didn't notice you," she said, quick to alleviate his worry.

"What are you working on?" he asked.

"It's not much, just a few ideas. I'm trying to write a book," she explained as she closed the notebook hastily, embarrassed at her pitiful attempt at writing. "It's not even started. I need an idea first. I thought I could write some historical fiction. Working at a museum that comes to life is a valuable resource and I would be a fool to pass that up."

"Perhaps a story on ancient Egypt would be fitting?" he suggested.

"That sounds like a great place to start. Would you mind if I used you as a resource for facts?" she asked with only mild hesitation.

Ahk smiled. "I would be happy to help." Doubtless that had been his plan all along. He pulled up a chair and they began talking.

It felt very much like an interview. She asked questions and he answered to the best of his ability. He expanded on her knowledge of ancient Egypt and told her about his daily life as a pharaoh. She listened attentively, taking down notes on everything so she wouldn't forget.

"What sort of education prepared you for the throne?" she asked after a while.

"History, writing, mathematics, and languages were just a few subjects those ascending to the throne were expected to study. We were more than just figureheads. We were rulers, set in place to nurture our lands and protect out people." His words were sage and Izzy wasn't sure if he had been like this during his human life or if it came from millennia of introspection.

She smiled brightly at their progress. "If you keep at this I'm going to run out of paper." She set down her pen and shook her cramped hand, her smile morphing into a small wince.

"Your manner of writing seems quicker than using hieroglyphs," he commented, looking over the top of the notebook to see better.

"Well, it's the only way I know how," she quipped, but her brows furrowed when she saw the obvious look of curiosity and confusion on his face as he stared at the words she had written. "Can't you write in English?"

He shook his head. "I only learned to speak English from immersion at Cambridge University. I never saw English letters until I was released from my sarcophagus."

"Would you like me to teach you? It's the least I could do in return for you helping me with my book."

Ahk looked at her with gratitude. "That sounds wonderful."

"Great. We'll have to start tomorrow, though. I have to do my rounds and it's nearly dawn.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Izzy arrived at work the next evening early, as usual, when Dr. McPhee found her and asked her into his office.

"Mr. Daley will be leaving his position as the full-time night guard here shortly. I wanted to extend the opportunity of taking his place to you." He pointed his index fingers at her and then laced them together, waiting for her answer.

"Larry is leaving?" she asked, shocked.

"Yes, it seems his business is taking off and he no longer has time to work here," McPhee said with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"I suppose that's great for him."

"As the only other night guard, you have the first crack at filling his position. Will you take it?" he asked.

"Yes, that would be great. Thank you, Dr. McPhee."

"Good. You will start your full-time shifts next Monday. That's all I needed from you."


	5. Chapter 5

I know I said I would post every other day, which means I missed yesterday. Sorry! Weekends get busy for me. So I will continue to update every monday, wednesday and friday.

I know you have been waiting for Isis to reveal her first trip to the museum and here it is!

* * *

Ahkmenrah woke that night to the sounds of Egyptian being shouted from outside of his tomb. He recognized the voice immediately.

"Friend! Friend!" Isis shouted in his mother tongue.

He hastily shoved the lid off his sarcophagus to see his guards bearing down upon Isis as she backed farther and farther away from them towards the tomb.

"Enough!" he shouted in the only language they understood. "She is not a threat. Back to your posts." He pulled himself out of his sarcophagus and the jackals bowed low and returned to their positions by the entryway.

"I guess they don't like it any time someone is already in here when they wake up," she commented offhandedly, trying to dispel some of the alarm she was feeling.

"Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" Ahk asked.

"No, I'm fine. I was just here to give you something before I went around to the exhibits."

"You have something for me?"

"Yeah." She indicated her phone and tapped on the screen as she spoke. "I downloaded some audio books to my phone. Larry told me you can work turntables so I thought a Smartphone would be easy for you." She handed her phone to him. "I'll need it back after my shift is over but I figured you could use it through the night. The words are highlighted as they are read so I thought it would help a lot to teach you to read English."

He smiled graciously. "This is wonderful. Thank you."

"I'll see you after I make my first round. Then I'll work on teaching you myself." She waved briefly and left.

Ahkmenrah looked at the phone she had given him. Knowledge. It was a wondrous gift. For two people to come together with the intent to aid each other in the pursuit of knowledge by exchanging skills and life experiences… it was magical. They had become friends without even realizing it. To him, she was the amalgamation of the wonders of the new world as well as the world he was born into.

She was a breath of fresh air every time he stepped out of his tomb, the nostalgic remembrance of his home now coming without the undue pain of its loss. He could only hope she felt similarly.

He looked back to his guards. "No harm shall come to her. She is a friend," he told them and they bowed their heads in assent.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ahkmenrah wandered aimlessly through the halls. He had been sitting for nearly two hours watching the words on the screen light up as a man's voice spoke them aloud. It was a wonderful invention and he was eager to learn more after he stretched his legs. But, hearing shouting up ahead, he sped towards the atrium, his gilded cape fluttering along after him.

He entered the room to see Isis standing at the foot of the globe looking at Dexter sitting atop it. The monkey chittered out a laugh as he jangled the keys in front of the irritated woman on the ground.

"Dexter, for heaven's sake, I will send Rexy up there to get those keys if I have to. I need them!"

Attila approached and spoke to Isis in his undecipherable language.

"Do you need the sports equipment again?" she asked. He nodded. "Well I can't unlock the door until I have my keys and Dex has them." She pointed up to where the monkey still perched.

Attila looked up and called softly to Dex. The monkey seemed to understand and proceeded to climb down, hop onto the Hun's shoulder, and let the keys drop into Attila's hand with an innocent chitter. Isis glared at the monkey as she took the keys from the Hun.

"Don't act all cute when I have been chasing you around for half an hour. You keep this up and you'll find your exhibit locked the next night." She stalked away to open the storage room.

Ahkmenrah stood unnoticed at the entrance to the Atrium, smiling at the young woman's exasperations. He admired how well she was acclimating to the strange night life of the museum.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few minutes later Izzy returned to find Ahk bent over her phone behind the desk. She listened as the program read out the words as he watched the screen. He noticed her approach and paused the recording as she sat down.

"What book are you reading?" she asked. "I wasn't sure what you would like so I downloaded all the classics I could think of."

"Frankenstein."

"I've always heard that was a good one. I've been meaning to read it myself."

"It seems interesting so far. I have heard of the story but I have never known what it was really about."

"I'm glad you like it," she said as she brought out her notebook from a messenger bag.

"You seem to have adjusted well to the museum," he commented.

"You mean the whole 'coming to life' thing? It just seemed to make sense," she shrugged and opened the notebook to a blank page.

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.

Her hesitant eyes lifted from the paper to stare into his. She took a deep breath, letting it out as she spoke. "Well, I guess I look different now. I don't blame you for not remembering. Six years ago I stayed in the museum till after dark. And I... I was in your exhibit when it all came to life. When you started to scream I thought some kid had been trapped in the sarcophagus and I had to get you out."

"You were the one that released me?" he asked with breathless surprise. The question was really unnecessary. He could see now that this woman was the same child who had freed him all those years ago. The same skin tone, the same curly hair, even the same honey-colored eyes. He should have realized. He had been so sure that girl would never return. How could he have imagined she would grow up to work at the very museum she ran from years ago?

"Yes," she answered, slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry I left in such a hurry-" Her words were cut off when he took her hands in his, holding them firmly.

"Thank you!" He exclaimed fervently. "You have no idea the gift you gave me. You have no need to apologize. If anything, I do. I'm sorry you were so frightened, but you ran before I could explain and thank you for what you did." He placed a lingering kiss on her hands.

How long had he wished the child would return so he could thank her properly? How many times had he ran speeches of thanks through his mind, trying to find the right words for a meeting he was sure would never happen? Yet, here she was, the frightened and frizzy-haired girl from years ago and all the words he had imagined felt inadequate now.

"The relief I felt at my release was unlike anything I could describe. Three thousand years of waiting and a child releases me. Thank you. I am in your debt."

"It's..." She couldn't just say it wasn't a big deal. It was. She couldn't imagine how it must have felt to stand and breathe fresh air after centuries trapped inside a box. She could only nod her head in acceptance of his thanks.

"Why were you crying that night?" he asked as he remembered more of that night.

"I was thinking about my father. When I stepped into your exhibit it felt like he was close to me, like I was home." She blushed, slightly embarrassed at her silly younger self.

"I'm sorry I scared you so long ago," he whispered sincerely.

"It couldn't be helped. I think anyone would be frightened the first time they saw two statues and a mummy come to life."

"You need not fear the jackals anymore. I have explained that you are not to be harmed."

"Thanks for that. They seem to take your protection quite seriously." Something suddenly surfaced in Izzy's mind as she reflected on the night they had first met. "Ahk," she said slowly, "you said the night guards before Larry didn't let you guys have much freedom. What happened after I released you?"

He breathed deeply for a moment. A slow breath in and out. "When the dawn approached and I returned to my tomb they replaced the locks, confining me again until Larry released me years later."

Her eyes widened in sympathy. "I'm so sorry, Ahk. If I had known what had happened-"

"I know. You have a good heart, Isis." She squeezed his hands once in reply before pulling hers out of his grip, only just realizing they were still there. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone about this?" he asked.

She laughed quietly. "You mean other than the fact that I would have gotten in trouble for trespassing and sent to the loony bin? It was a bit... embarrassing I guess. And I didn't want to tell anyone now that I got the job because I was curious about what had happened and I didn't want to get fired. Anyway, we should get started," she said, hastening to change the subject and began writing letters down on the paper. "Let's start with the alphabet."

* * *

Please tell me what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

A little chapter for you before we move on with the plot. we will be getting into the second movie soon.

* * *

The Monday that began her full-time status as a guard started like most other nights. She locked all the doors, brought out the sports equipment and sat at the front desk just as the sun went down. Like most other nights, Teddy was the first to greet her.

"Izzy, not that I'm not pleased to see you, but I was expecting to see Lawrence tonight. I hope he hasn't fallen ill."

Isis' brow furrowed as he climbed off his horse and approached.

"He's fine. He didn't tell you?" she asked.

"I would suppose not as I don't know what you mean."

She guessed if Teddy didn't know then Larry hadn't told anyone.

"Right, well, do me a favor and help me gather everyone up and I'll tell everyone all at once."

Ten minutes later found the majority of the museum within the atrium.

"Hey, Princess," Jed shouted from where the miniatures had gathered at the desk, "where's Gigantor?"

"I'm getting to that, Jed." She looked to Teddy. "Is everyone here?"

"Yes, we have rounded everyone up for your announcement," Teddy said with a nod.

"Alright, well," she began, thinking the best way would be to come right out and say it, "you must be wondering why I'm here and not Larry. He's not out sick. He quit. He gave his notice and last Friday was his last night."

"Why would Larry leave us?" Oct asked with concern and curiosity.

"You all knew he was starting his own business right?" Isis asked. Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd. "Well, he needed more time to invest in it so he left. I'll be the full-time night guard from now on."

Sounds emanated around the atrium with their unease at this statement. It was clear no one liked the news. Teddy tried to calm them down before things got out of hand.

"I think we are all reeling from the shock of this news. Larry was an excellent night guard and friend and we will all miss seeing him dearly."

"Yeah, well, good riddance is all I gotta say," Jed shouted. He crossed his arms trying to disguise the hurt they all felt with contempt. "If Gigantor wants to up and leave us then let him go."

"Jed, he's only doing what is best for him and Nick," Isis said.

"Perhaps we all need time to adjust," Teddy said. "Let us be thankful that Izzy is still here to care for us all."

Isis nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."

When the crowd dispersed with sorrowful mutterings she was left with Teddy and Ahk.

"I can't believe he didn't tell you guys. I thought you all knew by now," Isis said.

"I imagine he wanted to avoid the terrible goodbye," Teddy said.

"Perhaps it would be best to throw a party this week," Ahk suggested.

"An excellent idea!" Teddy boomed. "A party is just what we need to lift everyone's spirits."

"A party?" Isis asked as if the concept was foreign.

"In particularly dull, depressing, or even celebratory times we like to throw a party here to liven things up," Teddy explained.

"What? This isn't lively?" she quipped.

"With Larry gone we hope you will plan the party instead," Ahk said.

"Sure, what do I have to do?"

XXXXXXXXX

It turned out there wasn't much planning to be done. She merely announced the upcoming party and arranged a soccer tournament of four teams.

They all had an excellent time dancing to the music and laughing amongst themselves. The soccer tournament in the atrium was a big hit.

While Isis' team, consisting of several animals and the Civil War mannequins, lost, they took the outcome well and congratulated Teddy's team on their victory and then once again when they defeated Attila's team.

Teddy cried out jovially as he approached Isis after his second victory. "Quite the turnout, I'd say."

"I must agree," Ahk said as he approached as well, having just been beaten by Teddy's team. "You have thrown an excellent party, Isis."

"Thanks."

"You know, I have heard you called by both names; Izzy and Isis. Which is it exactly?" Teddy asked.

She realized then that the only one that knew her real name was Ahkmenrah.

"My name is Isis but most people call me Izzy. You can use whichever one you want, Teddy."

"Thank you, my dear. Now, if you will excuse me, I have hardly spent any time with my beloved tonight." Teddy waved and set off to find Sacajewea.

"You know," Isis said to Ahk, "I've heard about it, but I would never have thought I would see a 4,000-year-old pharaoh working turntables."

"It's easier than I had first assumed," he said with a smile.

She shook her head. "If you say so. They seem complicated to me."

"Would you like a demonstration?"

"Absolutely."

* * *

And next chapter we will be starting the plot for the second movie. Thanks to all who have stayed with me this far. The best is yet to come.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this story so far!

* * *

Izzy had just finished patrolling for stragglers and unlocking the doors to the store room where they held the recreational equipment before walking back to the front desk and sitting down before sunset. She put her head in her hands and sighed, resigning herself to explaining that museum would be upgrading and moving some of the exhibits to the federal archives. In the two years she had worked here, this was by far the hardest thing she had ever had to do.

An almost palpable wave of pure life swept through the museum and she could feel the light stress headache ease as the magic washed over her. She stood up and approached Teddy as Tex stepped off the platform.

"Good evening Izzy," he said with his usual pleasantness. Then, noticing her troubled expression, added, "What's wrong, my dear?" The concern was obvious I his voice.

"I need to talk to you and Ahk," she said. Her morose tone and saddened eyes worried Teddy, but he said nothing as he slid off Tex and followed her to find their resident Pharaoh. They walked down the hallways towards the Egyptian exhibit and met Ahk as he approached the main part of the museum.

Ahk could tell immediately that something was wrong. Teddy's bright smile was nowhere to be seen and Isis had an air of defeat about her, almost as if a rain cloud hovered above their heads.

"Is something wrong?" Ahk asked worriedly.

"I need to talk to you two, alone."

"We should be undisturbed in my room," Ahk offered. She nodded and together they entered the exhibit, surrounded in stone walls lined with hieroglyphs.

"I've got some bad news. The board and Dr. McPhee have decided to upgrade the museum and bring in new exhibits."

"What is so bad about that?" Ahkmenrah asked.

"The new exhibits will be replacing some of the old ones, which will be stored in the Federal Archives in the Smithsonian in D.C." Both men looked startled and taken aback."They have already decided which exhibits will go. Both of you will be staying, which means," she motioned to Ahk, "that the tablet is staying as well."

She paused a moment to let them wrap their heads around the information. It was devastating news to know their friends would be separated from them. It was worse even, for them to know that their friends would no longer be coming to life once they were moved.

"Who is leaving?" Teddy asked, his throat thick with worry.

"A few of the animals, the hall of miniatures, the Neanderthals, Attila and his Huns, Dexter and... and Sacajawea."

Teddy's expression darkened at her words. If he had been made of flesh, rather than wax, his face surely would have paled and he might have possibly let loose a few tears. He covered his face with his hand as he looked away. Izzy and Ahk looked on as their friend came to terms with losing his beloved.

Teddy's throat constricted painfully and he cleared it. "Is there anything we can do? Have you said anything on our behalf to the board? You are the only voice we have during the day. Surely you can say something." Teddy's eyes were pleading her to find a way to fix this.

Her tone was glum. "I tried, but I'm just a night guard, and a young one at that. They wouldn't listen to a 20 year-old discussing business decisions and what is best for the museum. I couldn't convince them. I tried calling Larry but I can't get a hold of him. I didn't want to tell you until the decisions were final and they have just signed the paperwork today. They will be packed up in the morning and shipped out the following day. I thought it would be best to tell you two the news first so we might be able to break it more gently to everyone."

"They will be devastated," Ahk said quietly.

"No, they won't," Teddy spoke hoarsely, but with a new determination in his eyes. "We tell them that we are all being moved. We won't let them know that this is their last few nights to come to life."

"You want to lie to them about that?" Izzy asked. "They won't know that they should be making the best of the time they have left." She looked to the president as she questioned his methods.

"Sometimes it is more noble to tell a small lie than to deliver a painful truth."

"It's not going to be easy," Izzy said solemnly.

But Ahk provided the final word for the situation. "We must, for our friends. It will be easier for them."

The two nodded their agreement, but all three knew this was going to be a tough night to get through.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The evening before the exhibits were to be shipped out, they had an unexpected visitor waiting for them.

"Larry, you're back," Izzy called out as she approached the atrium where her predecessor stood by the front desk.

"Lawrence! Good to see you, lad!" Teddy shouted jubilantly.

"Yeah, you too, Teddy," Larry smiled.

"The Guardian of Brooklyn has returned!" Ahk shouted, commanding the full attention of the room.

"Hey, Ahk. Look, McPhee told me what's going on around here. I had no idea."

"Indeed. A lot has transpired, Lawrence, since your last visit. One would say that..." Larry held up a hand as he answered a text message on his phone, interrupting Teddy.

"Hey, Bocephus! Little help over here!" Jed called from a crate. Izzy rushed over and lifted the lid for the tiny men as Larry finished his message.

"Hey, fellas. How are you doing?" Larry asked as they climbed out of the packing peanuts.

"Well lookie here," Jed called out, ignoring Larry's question. "If it ain't Mr. Big-in-the-Britches himself. Come back just in time to see us off!"

Larry ignored his tone. "Yeah, Jed, I heard. Look I don't know how this happened."

"Yeah." Jed waved him off. "Yeah, real mystery how this happened. Maybe the answer's on that magic buzzing box there in your hand. You weren't here Gigantor. That's how it happened! Ain't no mystery!"

"The fact is, Larry," Octavious added, "there's no one here with enough influence to sway the museum's decisions on our behalf."

"Well, what about Izzy?" Larry asked.

Izzy shook her head. "Oct just said it, Larry. I don't have the influence you do. I'm just a young night guard trying to tell the museum board how to handle the important business decisions. They won't listen to me. I'm not the CEO of my own company, Larry. I did what I could but it wasn't enough."

"Well it's okay. I'll call the board in the morning, all right? I've got some pull now. We're gonna to be okay here."

"'We'? Did you hear that?" Jed asked of no one in particular. "You hear Daydream Johnny? There ain't been a 'we' since you put us on the 'pay no mind' list. And that's a cold place to be, boy."

"Larry, what's done is done. Even the glory of Rome had to come to an end," Octavious looked away sadly as his melodramatic tone rang out.

"Would you please not look dramatically off into the middle distance when you say that?" Larry asked. "It makes me feel worse."

"Good," Izzy said, irritation evident in her usually kind voice. "Keep doing it Oct. He deserved to feel worse. Do you know how many times I tried to call you in the last week? I knew you would be able to say something to the board. I left messages with your secretary but I guess it wasn't important enough for you now that you are a big shot. You didn't care enough to get back to me."

"Look maybe it won't be that bad."

Attila mimicked Larry's words in his own language in the mocking tone of a frustrated child.

Izzy smiled in agreement at his treatment towards the man who had all but abandoned them.

"Yes, you make a good point. But this is the Smithsonian we're talking about here."

Dexter appeared and chattered at Larry.

"Dexter you don't know that," Larry responded, pointing a finger at the monkey.

"You're missing the point, Gigantor! They're shipping us out!"

"Larry," Octavious began patronizingly, "I know you're trying to make us feel better. I can see that you're genuinely slightly bothered but it's never going to be the same. All of us here, together in this place."

"It ain't never gonna be home, boy," Jed added, and Octavious nodded in agreement.

"Jedediah, please!" Teddy begged before turning to his friend. "Lawrence, these are emotional times for all of us. But it is our last night as a family and I don't want to see it squandered in self-pity. So who will join me for one final stroll through these hallowed halls?"

They spent the night walking through the halls together, remembering all the fun times they had. They told Izzy all of the memorable moments that had had before she had become the night guard. They laughed, some cried. A heavy gloom settled over all of them as dawn approached and each wore an expression of reflection as they looked around the museum and the ones they would be permanently separated from.

Izzy had to pretend to say goodbye to all of them to keep up the façade that she would be left behind with a quiet museum while they all ventured to the Smithsonian, and then individual goodbyes to each of them as they climbed into their crates.

She watched with teary eyes as she made her way to the fringes of the room to pretend to give a goodbye hug to Ahkmenrah, wanting them to fully believe that she was the only person that they would be losing.

"I'm going to miss them so much," she whispered for only Ahk to hear. "The board won't go back on their decisions and there is nothing that Larry can do." He raised his arm and placed it around her shoulders in comfort. She leaned into his side gratefully and they watched Dexter slam Larry's hands in his crate.

"I never thought I would miss Dexter this much," she laughed mournfully.

"It will never be the same. But a new day is dawning and with it, new opportunities," Ahk said wisely.

She gripped his hand on her shoulder tightly, holding it in the hope that she was giving just as much comfort as she was receiving.

"You should head back," she said. "It's nearly dawn and I need to make sure their crates are closed."

"We will see you tomorrow night, Isis. We can all get through this."

She sent him a polite smile that held no true warmth and they parted.

Izzy checked and closed each crate correctly as she overheard Teddy telling Larry that Ahk's tablet wouldn't be shipped to the Smithsonian after all. She left before her tears had a chance to spill from her eyes.

* * *

Next chapter will be posted monday.


	8. Chapter 8

A special thanks to The Silvernote for reviewing every chapter. This one is for you!

* * *

It turned out even Larry hadn't had the pull required to change the plans for their friends. The following morning they had been loaded up and shipped out to the federal archives.

That night Izzy had continued with her rounds like any other day, searching for stragglers and locking and unlocking the appropriate doors. It was only once she reached the lobby and saw that night had already fallen without the usual appearance of life in the exhibits, that she knew something wasn't right. She ran down to Ahkmenrah's tomb and immediately saw that the tablet was missing.

With shaking hands and the feeling that her dinner may reappear, she called Larry. She waited anxiously as the phone rang and rang and prayed he would pick up as she paced impatiently between the Anubis guards. After the fourth ring he finally answered.

"Hello," he greeted.

"It's gone, Larry! The tablet is gone! Gone!" She nearly shrieked out the words, roughly running a worried hand through her wavy locks. "I swear no one has been into the museum yet. I locked all the doors a half an hour ago and no one could have taken it during business hours."

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"Ahk's tablet!" She really did scream now, imploring him to understand her. She calmed herself until she sounded only slightly hysterical. "It's gone. I am staring right at the tomb. The movers weren't supposed to take it."

"What? Hang on, I've got a call on my house phone."

"Larry? Larry!" She groaned in frustration. He was always pausing conversations to answer his phone. Surely this was important enough to wait on whatever business deal he was arranging. She heard the faint sounds of excited speech as she waited.

"Izzy, the tablet's been taken," Larry stated. She rolled her eyes so hard she feared they might stick that way.

"You think?" she retorted sarcastically.

"Dex took it, Jed just called. Apparently Ahk's brother is causing trouble."

"Brother?" she questioned.

"Listen, I need you to go home and pack a bag. I'll stop by and pick you up after I drop Nicky off at his mom's. We're going to the airport and we are going to find out what is going on."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After doing exactly what Larry asked, later they found themselves in the Smithsonian a few hours later, asking questions and scoping the area for information.

"The archives are underground and apparently totally secure," Larry said as he walked back to her after questioning a tour guide.

"We are going to break so many laws," she whispered aimlessly. "Somehow, we need to get a key card to access the archives in the security area."

"We need a guard. Stay here. I'll take care of it," Larry said.

Izzy spent her time looking over some ancient Egyptian artifacts as Larry argued with a guard.

"You're just doing your job," Larry called to the guard as he stepped away, "all right."

As he turned back toward her, Larry held up the card he had swiped. She had to suppress a smile.

"The museum is closing, we need to go," Izzy mentioned to Larry as discretely as she could in front of the guard that was now eyeing her in an appraising manner.

"Hello," he called, drawing out the word in a voice lower than the one he had used with Larry.

"Goodbye," she deadpanned and turned away.

"Take it easy man," Larry turned and they both parted from the oblivious guard. They walked swiftly to the door and he swiped the card. The light turned green and they heard the lock click. They made their way through the door and down a hallway. A couple of guards turned the corner and Larry hastily pulled Izzy into the closest room.

By a stroke of luck the room they just entered was a locker room filled with employee uniforms. Larry sorted through them and began pulling articles out of one of the cubbies.

"Here put this on," he tossed a uniform at her. "We'll look less suspicious in the Smithsonian uniform."

"This is a small. Aren't there any mediums?" She hissed quietly.

"Small or XL."

She groaned. "Fine."

They both pulled on matching suits and jackets as well as a flashlight for each of them. Larry called Nick to act as their tour guide and lookout for trouble before they began walking deeper into the staff section of the Smithsonian.

"Okay, buddy, we're in." There was a pause. "The northeast corridor of the castle, just off the commons. I need you to talk us to the archives… Got it… We'd better hurry, we only have 28 minutes till sun down."

They proceeded right down the hall and into a stairwell. One and a half flights of stairs later, Larry paused mid step. "Nick? Hello? Nick? Nick you're... Nick?" The doors of the floor above opened as two guards stepped through. They rushed to the next door and hurried through it.

"No reception?" asked Izzy.

"None."

"Just act like we know what we're doing. If anyone sees us they will think we belong here," Isis suggested.

They entered upon a darkened store room blocked off by framed wire walls and doors. A camera looked down just outside of an empty guard post. Larry held a finger to his lips as he silently shushed Izzy. He dug out the I.D. and held it in front of the camera as he buzzed for assistance.

"I.D.?" a voice called over the speaker. "Brandon," the voice drawled in familiarity.

"Hey," Larry responded awkwardly as he tried to imitate the guard he had stolen the badge from.

"Later dude," the voice spoke as they stepped through the doors.

They entered the archives and turned on their flashlights in the semi-darkness.

"All right, where are you guys?" Larry asked to the darkness.

They came upon a large crate in the middle of the floor and Larry began to undo the clasps. As the last was undone, a large tentacle fell out and slapped to the floor.

"Would you quit fooling around," Izzy hissed to Larry as he began stuffing the large limb back into the crate. "They won't be in closed crates, they would have gotten out already." They fastened the latches and proceeded deeper into the archives until they came across what was obviously their goal.

Six Egyptian soldiers carrying spears surrounded a metal storage unit menacingly. In the heart of the fray stood a man, frozen in speech with his face contorted with rage. She inspected the man as Larry looked to the crate.

"This must be Ahk's brother that Jed mentioned. He's dressed like a Pharaoh." Izzy explained as Larry peered into the small opening of the storage unit.

"They're in here, all of them. Dex has the tablet way in the back. You little trouble maker, I'm going to deal with you later." He hissed the last words to Dex as he tried to pry open the door. "I can't get the door open."

Izzy grabbed a spear out of a soldiers hands and held it out to him. "Try this."

He struggled in the small space for a moment, trying to thread the spear through the one of the gaps between the tiles, before calling out in victory "I've got it!" He pulled the spear back gently and then took the tablet off the end and dropped the spear.

Unfortunately, the tablet began to glow at that exact moment.

* * *

Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Thank you to all who have responded. Here is the next chapter for you.

* * *

"No, no, no, no, no!" Larry shouted at the tablet in his hands. The soldiers and the Pharaoh came to life just behind them. The man in the regal outfit shouted to the soldiers and they raised their spears, readying an attack.

"No!" she shouted back in Egyptian and throwing her hands in the air as if to stop them. She only hoped to stall them long enough for them to make it out of this alive. It was already obvious that this man was not like his brother at all and shouting in a language they understood seemed to be the best option at the time to at least stall them.

It seemed to surprise them as they all stopped. The spears were still poised at them but they were not ordered to kill just yet. The Pharaoh spoke curiously to the pair in Egyptian.

"Larry, this guy obviously wants the tablet and he doesn't seem nice," Izzy said as the Pharaoh observed them.

"I know," he responded. Fatherly instincts kicking in and he pushed Isis back behind him, placing himself between the spears and the young woman to better protect her.

"Ah, English, of course," the man responded with an obvious lisp and a snap of his fingers.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Larry asked.

The pharaoh drew himself up to his full height. "I am Kahmunrah. The Great King of the Great Kings, and from the darkest depths of history, I have come back to life." He paused for effect as if they would be awed this fact. It seemed he was unaware that this was a daily occurrence for them.

"Uh-huh," Larry let out.

"Perhaps you did not hear what I just said. I am a centuries-old Egyptian Pharaoh. I was dead but now I have come back to life!" he repeated even more dramatically than the first time.

"Yeah, no, we heard that. We got that, welcome back."

For all his exuberance, Kahmunrah looked at a loss for words as he stared at Larry. "Who- who are you?" he asked plainly.

"Larry Daley, Daley Devices? It's up in New York."

"And I'm Isis Porter."

"It's funny, we know your brother, Ahkmenrah," Larry continued.

Kahmunrah's expression changed from perplexity to false amusement.

"They know baby brother, the favorite son," he keened out, almost sweetly.

"Yeah, good kid." Larry responded.

Izzy decided to stay quiet for the exchange between the two men in favor of observing the situation. In the subtleties of Kahmunrah's speech and expressions she could tell he held no love for Ahk, though she didn't yet know why. She didn't think that Larry had quite picked up on it yet.

"Isn't he just?" Kahmunrah simpered out. "You know, Mother and Father always gave him the best of everything, and I do mean everything. They even gave him the throne. The throne that was rightfully mine!" His tone hardened as he spat those last words at the pair of them.

And there was the answer to the sibling rivalry she had been looking for.

"He never mentioned that," Larry respond awkwardly.

"I'll just bet he didn't. Well, now begins the era of Kahmunrah because I have come back to... Never mind, just hand me the tablet." He began his words dramatically like before but he seemed to lose interest and shook his head before finishing almost tiredly.

"Don't give it to him, Gigantor!" Jed shouted from inside the crate. The rest of their friends yelled in agreement.

"Silence! Silence in there, please! Don't make me come in there!" Kahmunrah commanded them and banged on the door for good measure.

"No! I will not be muzzled!" But despite Jed's protest he fell silent.

"Look, that tablet is more powerful than you, Larry Daley of Daley Devices, or you, Isis Porter, can possibly imagine. Bringing things to life is just a parlor trick. With it, I shall unlock the gate to the underworld and bring forth my army from the Land of the Dead." He sauntered up to the pair of night guards as his soldiers closed in threateningly. "So if it's not too much trouble..." he shouted to the guards in Egyptian again and they raised their spears to neck height, "hand it over."

"Okay, here you go." Larry held out the tablet and let the bemused Kahmunrah take it.

"Larry!" Izzy shouted indignantly at him.

"Wise decision," the Pharaoh praised.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, I just thought you wanted the Cube, but-" Larry suggested before they could even turn around.

"The Cube?"

"The Cube of Rubik," Larry stated confidently.

"All right, what is this Cube of Rubik, then?"

"The Cube. You know, the one that turns all who oppose you to dust? That one? Your brother didn't want to mess with it either. Yeah, he wanted to play it safe, too. Just, you sort of struck me as a next-level sort of guy, so I was..." Larry trailed off.

"I am not my brother, Larry. I will kill you and your friends in the blink of an eye. Now take me to this Cube of Rubik."

Larry lead them back the way they had arrived and back to the crate they had opened just a half hour before.

"Here it is," he announced.

"Open it," Kahmunrah commanded Larry. "You will stay here," he pointed to Isis. She looked startled by his request. She looked to Larry and he sent her a warning glance before he began to open the latches. Understanding his meaning, she quietly stepped back.

Just as the last latch was undone a giant squid slid out to the floor and began waving it's tentacles around menacingly. The tentacles wrapped around the soldiers and threw them in random directions, slamming them into boxes and releasing the exhibits from within. Kahmunrah was the next to be thrown and with him, the tablet. It flew out of his hands and began to plummet to the ground rapidly. Isis ran underneath it and managed to catch it before it hit the unforgiving concrete.

"Larry!" she shouted and held up the tablet for him to see. He nodded and they both took off away from the fight as the Egyptian king shouted at them to come back.

As they ran through the maze of the archives the squid abandoned its original spot, now barren of people to throw, and, spotting them down a corridor, rushed after them.

The squid was upon them before they could get away and they were slammed into a crate at the far end of the hall. Larry and Izzy crawled away from the occupant of a now-broken crate, a hippo, to hear the sound of a bugle call. A few seconds of confusion later a motorcycle dropped down from another level and startled everyone in the area.

The man upon the motorcycle, who they recognized as having passed by earlier, smiled at them excitedly as the soldiers began to descend upon them. It was General Custer.

"Take the wheel, boy!" the general shouted as he climbed off the bike and into the sidecar.

"What?" both Larry and Izzy asked in unison.

"I said take the wheel, boy! Oh, we're in it now! I love it! I love it! Just keep her straight, I'll handle the rest."

Larry climbed on immediately and slid forward to make room for her.

"But Larry-!" she complained, though without real conviction, gripping the tablet tighter to her chest. Trust the man known for failure in battle, or stay with the squid and the guards?

"Get on," Larry implored. She did so, albeit reluctantly.

"Now, charge!" Custer shouted like a battle cry. Larry revved the engine and it shot out carrying them along.

"Okay, so what's the plan here?" Larry asked.

The General scoffed. "We're American's! We don't plan, we do!" he shouted back over the roar of the engine.

"It's that kind of thinking that made you famous!" Izzy retorted with irritation.

"Thank you little lady," he responded with a winning smile. "Now, hold on!"

The motorcycle smashed into the soldiers as they barreled past them. Some crashed through the crates and let more creatures loose.

"See that?" the general shouted. "Act first, think later! Works every time. You're in good hands. General George A. Custer of the Fighting U.S. 7th Cavalry, at your service." He spoke his title proudly and shouted in victory. Then, standing in the little sidecar just as they passed under a beam, he was knocked to the ground. "I'm good," he responded to their worried looks as they glanced behind. "I'm good! Fly you fools!"

They sped down the walkways as fast as possible, avoiding the soldiers as best they could, until a woman in an aviator outfit stepped in front of them and they were forced to grind to a sudden halt.

"What's the rumpus, you two?"

* * *

Thanks for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

Another thank you to all of you. You are awesome.

* * *

"Look lady can you get out of the way?" Larry asked impatiently.

"Lady? Who are you calling lady?" the woman asked. "The name is Amelia."

A soldier suddenly hit one of their tires with a spear, deflating it completely. They jumped off of the motorcycle and ran as the soldiers closed in.

"Amelia Earhart! Perhaps you've heard of me?"

"Yeah, the famous woman pilot?" Izzy inquired distractedly as they hid behind some of the storage containers at the end of a row.

"Pilot? I was the first woman to fly the Atlantic! First woman to receive the flying cross, first woman to fly across the 48 states in a gyroprop. Now if you'd wipe that perhaps-permanent look of alarm off both your kissers, I was wondering if you might be so kind as to tell me exactly where I am."

"Under a museum," Izzy supplied airily, peeking her head around the corner of the boxes for a quick look for their pursuers.

"And we are in kind of a dangerous situation right now, so you might not want to be anywhere near us now," Larry added.

"What are your names?"

"My name is Larry Daley," he responded as he looked around for signs of the soldiers as they got closer.

"I'm Isis Porter."

"Well, Larry and Isis, in case you weren't listening, I'm not one to shy away from danger." She stepped out from their hiding place and was immediately surrounded by spears embedded into the wall behind her.

"How about spears? Are you one to shy away from spears?" Larry asked.

They ran for their lives as the soldiers followed them. They made it up to the main part of the museum and proceeded through rooms full of framed artwork.

"You are quite the popular duo. Why don't you just skedaddle?" Amelia asked.

"We can't just go," Isis answered. "Our friends are down there. We have to get them while avoiding the angry lisping Pharaoh that wants this tablet," she shook the tablet for reference, "to take over the world."

No sooner had they found a room and stepped inside before the soldiers were upon them, blocking the only exits. Isis cast her eyes about and her gaze landing on the famous portrait of two people kissing in Times Square at the end of the war. Stealing herself, she plunged a hand in and found it went through and into the painting, coloring her hand in pallid shades of black and white.

"Larry, come on!" she shouted to him and jumped through the picture still carrying the tablet. Seconds later, Larry and Amelia followed her example. They looked around appraisingly, taking stock of their new surroundings.

"Well, this is one humdinger of a hootenanny," Amelia declared proudly.

"No time for sight seeing," Isis shouted above the crowds cheering. They ran along the street avoiding the soldiers in the crowd. Larry stopped to answer a call from Nick just as Amelia was lead off by a young man. In Larry's distraction he bumped into a young soldier.

"Buddy, what's your hurry? Didn't you hear? The war's over!" the man announced happily.

"Sorry, can you help us?" Isis asked politely, knowing how helpful men in this time could be for a lady in danger. "Those guys are chasing us." She indicated the ancient soldiers to the man.

"What? What am I looking at, Marti Gras?"

"Can you help a girl out?" she pleaded giving the young man a nervous smile.

"Sure doll," he smiled. "Hey fellas! These so-and-so's are trying to rough up the lady and my pal here." The man called to his fellow soldiers and they worked their way through the crowd to stop them.

Larry and Isis rushed back to the entrance to the portrait but a quick glance back showed that their pursuers were not halted by the men who wanted to teach them a lesson.

"We need to blend in, sorry," Larry spoke to her. She barely had time to question him before he grabbed her and bent her down for a kiss.

Her skin tingled, though not in a pleasant warm feeling. To be more accurate, her skin crawled. The kiss was more akin to accidentally kissing a relative on the mouth when you were aiming for their cheek. Her body tensed uncomfortably and she found herself hoping some soldiers were passing by; anything to get her out of this awkward situation faster.

Finally someone came to her rescue, but it wasn't who she was expecting.

"Anytime you are done, Mr. Daley," Amelia drawled out.

They broke apart immediately. Isis felt her cheeks burning as well as something within her. Rage, most likely. Isis brusquely walked back through the portrait, Larry and the pilot following after her.

"So, you are quite the smooth operator, aren't you, Mr. Daley?" Amelia asked in a cheeky manner. Isis chose that exact moment to slap Larry across the face. "Perhaps not," Amelia amended.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Isis shouted, the words hastened out of her mouth, barely formed, in her rage.

Larry didn't retaliate before they all saw the Egyptian soldiers rushing toward the portrait.

"Quick!" They hurried to turn the painting around and held it there hoping to keep them trapped. Thankfully it worked.

They ran along more rooms filled with other kinds of artwork. They had to hide behind a fountain from some French soldiers and then down more and more corridors. It was lucky for them they were running from their enemy in the biggest museum in the world as it gave them plenty of hiding places.

But the problem with running while trying to hide was that eventually you ran into those you were trying to hide from.

They were stopped between rooms by several French soldiers and a man that could only be Napoleon.

"And so, the little tiny man who could not be a smaller or shorter mouse runs into the claws of the giant cat!" he shouted in his French accent

"Wow, you're really hung up on the height, aren't you?" Larry asked.

"No, it's not about height, see. It's about the plan! A brilliant plan." Napoleon stated proudly.

"Snazzy maneuver, Emperor," Amelia admired.

Napoleon stepped up to her with a smile.

"Merci, Mademoiselle. Now, if your boyfriend and la petite Mademoiselle would kindly come with me."

"Oh, I'm not her boyfriend. Not her boyfriend," Larry insisted.

Napoleon looked to Izzy. "Then perhaps..." he waved his hand between Izzy and Larry.

"No!" Izzy groaned. "I'm closer to his son's age. Larry is more like an uncle or something."

"Yes, definitely no one's boyfriend," Larry reiterated.

Napoleon stood back and eyed Amelia appraisingly. "No? Just friends? Oh." The Emperor slid next to Larry in an instant and began whispering curiously into his ear.

Isis rolled her eyes when she overheard their conversation concerning Larry's relationships. "Bayonets all around and out friends in danger. What a wonderful time to have this conversation," she muttered to herself. Seeming satisfied, Napoleon brandished his dagger at Larry again.

"Now, this way, or you die." Napoleon shouted orders to his troops and led Larry away himself as one of the guards ushered Izzy along with a firm grip on her arm. She kept a tight hold on the tablet, clutching it to her chest as tightly as possible as she was pulled along.

"Wait, I'm coming with you!" Amelia shouted from behind them.

"No! Our fight is not with you." Napoleon shouted without so much as a glance in her direction.

They were marched along to a room whose floor was littered with numerous museum pieces. Sitting upon an arm chair in the middle of the makeshift dais was none other than Kahmunrah.

"Hello, nice to see you again. Now if you don't mind, I shall take that from you. Thank you." He wrenched the tablet out of Isis' grip and stalked away. "Finally. Finally!" He set the tablet into it's place and began pushing upon the pads. "After 3000 years my evil army of the damned, my beautiful, beautiful army, shall be unleashed!"

He ended his speech dramatically and everyone watched in anticipation as nothing happened.

"I'm afraid that Mother and Father may have slightly changed the combination on me." Kahmunrah looked embarrassed as he admitted this oversight. He pressed his fingers together nervously.

"I guess this whole unleashing-the-underworld thing isn't really working out for you, huh?" Larry broke the silence awkwardly. "It must be really frustrating, 'cause you've waited thousands of years to come back from the dead and everything and now you can't get it open."

"Fear not, for I shall wait a thousand more if I must."

"Good, 'cause in a few hours you'll be standing there in a frustrated position, frozen and we'll walk right out of here with our buddies and that'll be that. So, we've got all night."

"Really? All night? Well! He doesn't." Kahmunrah pointed to a bird cage containing Jedediah.

"Jed!" Isis exclaimed.

"Open that cage," the King commanded.

"What are you doing?" Larry asked.

"No touching! No touching!" Jed cried out as Kahmunrah made to grab him. Both Larry and Isis were blocked from going to their friend by Kahmunrah's guards. Jed squirmed and shouted as Kahmunrah grabbed him and placed him in an hourglass and tipped it so sand rained down upon Jed's head.

"I don't think he has all night at all, Mr. Daley. From the looks of things I'd say he has a little over an hour," the King finished with an air of condescension.

"Take me out of here!" Jed demanded.

"You were the guardian!" Kahmunrah continued as he pulled the tablet off the wall, stalking over towards Larry. "You know all about this tablet. You're obviously much more clever than the rest of us. You may or may not know the combination, but I am going to give you exactly one hour to figure it out." He thrust the tablet into Larry's chest. "If you do not, I shall kill your friends. And please don't think about escaping, for I shall be watching you."

"Look," Larry said pleadingly, "I don't even know how to begin to decipher this thing, all right? Really."

"What a pity. And your little cowboy friend seemed like such a charming little fellow. Ah, well tick-tock Mr. Daley. Your hour has begun."

"Hey!" Jed called. "You two got this. I know you do."

"Off with you Mr. Daley." He waved his hand about in a 'shooing' motion to Larry just before his eyes alighted upon Isis. "Oh, and I will be keeping the woman, too."

* * *

Thanks for reading. What do you think is going to happen?


	11. Chapter 11

Some of the newest reviews are not being displayed for some reason. I am not the one keeping them from being viewed as I don't manage my story reviews. So aplogies if you reviewed and it doesn't show up. I can still read them through my email and there was one I wanted to adress.

K.J. Bollinger said I was not including Ahk very much.

You are right. Ahk isn't a big part of the story right now since he wasn't a big part in the first two movies. But I can assure you as soon as we get to the end of the second movie there will be Ahk aplenty. Ahk and Isis everywhere! He will be returning to the story in chapter 12. Yes, I condensed the second movie down because there was less Ahk in it.

Please enjoy this chapter and remember Ahk will be back next chapter!

* * *

"What?" Isis exclaimed in alarm. Two of the soldiers surrounding her grabbed her arms and pulled her away from Larry.

"No, I need her to figure this out," Larry said.

"Oh, too bad. The clock is ticking, Mr. Daley."

"Just go, Larry. I'll be fine," Isis spoke quickly.

Larry nodded to her and rushed off with the tablet. Ivan, whom Kahmunrah had recruited while Larry, Isis, and Amelia were in the painting, spoke to his soldiers and two of them left the room.

"Terribly sorry about the events of the night, my dear." Kahmunrah spoke to her significantly more politely than he had been just a moment ago.

"No problem," she replied with a dry, humorless tone. "I imagine all crazy take-over-the-world plans run into a few snags."

"Yes, well. It's quite over and done with, I assure you. Ivan's men shall return with more fitting attire for you, my lady."

"What sort of attire?" she asked. Why on earth would she need new clothes?

"The attire fit for an earthbound goddess, of course. I am honored to meet the incarnation of the great goddess Isis," he said matter-of-factly.

She stared at him strangely as if she were trying to pinpoint exactly which mental diseases he possessed under that ridiculous crown of his. She composed herself and stood up straight, taking advantage of his delusions.

"Well, as the Goddess Isis, I command you release my friends and forget any plans of world domination." She spoke in the most commanding voice she could muster in her terrible bluff. Kahmunrah smiled.

"Nice try," he said. "But I am the one in command here. You see, even as an incarnation of the goddess your earthly form holds no powers. Therefore, you are only useful to me like a charm or a talisman, a jewel in my crown. With the goddess of magic, healing and perfection at my side the Era of Kahmunrah will last for eons to come. You do not command me! I am half god! Much greater than a goddess trapped in human flesh. I am your king and you will obey!"

"You're nothing but a spoiled brat!" she shouted back. "I don't know how you and Ahkmenrah can be brothers. You're polar opposites."

The king rolled his eyes. "Oh, the ever-favorited baby brother. Tell me, does my brother dare to use the tablet to its full potential?"

"No, he doesn't-" she began.

"Ah-ha!"

"-because he is a great man! A wiser and more just ruler than you could ever aspire to be. He is kind and wonderful and everything that you are not."

Kahmunrah paused as he considered her. She smirked, believing she had won.

"You favor my brother, perhaps because you love him?" he accused.

Her smirk slipped off her face as she felt her cheeks heating.

"Uh-I-I-uh-" she stammered.

She was saved from giving a real answer by the entrance of Ivan's men returning with a pile of clothes.

"Ah, yes. Good, good." Kahmunrah perused the clothes quickly. "You will put these on and return quickly."

"No," she returned petulantly.

"Don't act like a child. I am giving you a position of honor. Would you rather be imprisoned with the common filth?"

"Yes," she said proudly.

"Perhaps your friend could change your mind, hmm?" He held up the hourglass for her to look Jed in the eye. "Perhaps we can make time fly?" He tapped roughly at the top of the hourglass, throwing Jed to the ground and forcing more sand onto his head.

"Enough! Fine. I'll wear the stupid clothes."

"I knew you could see it my way. Now, off you go to change." He made shooing motions at her and the two soldiers. They led her away to the closest bathroom and allowed her the privacy to change while they waited outside the door.

The bathroom held no means of escape, not even a conveniently placed man-sized air vent. It didn't seem she had a choice.

She inspected the clothes and grudgingly admitted that they were beautiful. The attire the men had chosen was regal Egyptian. She slipped off her stolen guard uniform and put it in the sink and began to pull on the new outfit.

The dress covered her shoulders and chest modestly while the white fabric of the skirt swept downward to her calves. The headdress didn't stand tall like that of the two brothers' and the gold crown hugged her face and head tightly without impeding her movement or vision. The neckpiece was a large circlet around her shoulders like that of Ahk's, only in amber and gold. She attached two ornately carved gold bracers on her arms and a golden rope belt to cinch the dress around her waist. Lastly, she slipped on a few ornate rings and a pair of golden sandals.

She was lead back to the makeshift throne room and saw Kahmunrah with Muhammad Ali's robe draped over his shoulders as he pretended to box.

"You know, I do sort of feel like a floating butterfly."

"You are crazier than a road lizard," Jed awed at the man's insanity.

She sat on the floor next to Jed in the hourglass and stares at him sadly.

"What are we going to do Jed?"

"Don't you worry there, Princess. Gigantor has gotten us out of bigger pickles than this. He'll pull through. You can count on that."

While they had been talking Ivan had lead two exhibits into the room and presented them to Kahmunrah as they wished to join them in their quest for world domination.

"You," Kahmunrah shouted to her. "Earthly Goddess, come here." She stood and made her way over to them, with no small amount of irritation showing in her face. "Identify these two to me."

She stuck out her lip and turned up her nose at him. "I don't recall being the Goddess of wisdom or intelligence."

"You should quickly decide to become the Goddess of Listens-to-whatever-Kahmunrah-says or you will find your friends in more dire circumstances than they are now. Now, tell me who they are and if they are useful to me."

"That's Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader. Oscar would be useless and Vader would only be helpful if he could use the Force. Which he can't as he is nothing but wax and a cape. So, all in all, useless."

The Egyptian king turned towards the two characters. "I'm sorry, but we're all full up in our axis of evil today. Sorry. Goodbye." He waved them out and went back to his treasure pile.

"Attention! He is leaving with the tablet," Napoleon shouted to Kahmunrah from the window. He took a spyglass from the Frenchman and looked through it to see Larry outside.

"He's not trying to figure out the... He's trying to escape!" Kahmunrah whirled around in his rage. "Go. Go! All of you! Kill him! And bring me that tablet." They all quickly left upon his order as he continued to watch Larry through the spyglass "Thought you could get away didn't you, Larry Daley?" he said as if Larry could hear him.

"You're making a mistake," Isis interrupted. "Larry wouldn't just leave us here."

"You had better hope so."

"He will be here. Just you wait. Or you could just give up now," she suggested in a bored and winning manner.

"Silence. Let me enjoy the fruits of my labors in peace."

She left him to inspect the treasure pile, though she really did want to continue arguing to make his life miserable. She sat back down next to Jed in the hourglass and hugged her knees.

"I feel useless, here." She grumbled.

"Well, you are keeping me entertained, if that helps," Jed offered. She looked down at him dryly. "Hey, you said it yourself. Gigantor won't abandon us. Octavious is out there looking for help. And you've got ol' Jedadiah looking out for you. Now put that smirk back on that face. I love hearing you argue with that crazy king. "

They spent their time making comments to each other about Kahmunrah as he looked through the exhibits in the room. She would offer up false information of her own invention about the pieces he looked through, merely attempting to lighten the air as the time ticked by. Eventually Kahmunrah was no longer amused by his pile of riches and sat impatiently in his chair stolen from Archie Bunker.

"Look a little nervous there, Ramen Noodle," Jed said to the king. "'Cause for me this is like a spa treatment. Sand baths are really rejuvenating for the skin. Exfoliates. Giving up yet?"

"Not quite yet, no. Now, quiet in there." He flicked the side of the glass, making it ring loud in Jed's ears. A buzzing like an old airplane sounded in the distance and continued to draw closer as the seconds ticked by.

"What is that funny sound?" he asked. Isis heard the plane, nearly on top of them now, and knew it couldn't be good. She had only enough time to duck for cover before the plane crashed through the glass and slid across the floor, remarkably intact and carrying Larry with the tablet.

* * *

Please tell me what you think. Authors cannot improve without feedback.


	12. Chapter 12

Ahk is back in this chapter. Hooray!

Thank you all for responding to my story.

* * *

"Stop! Right there, please, Mr. Daley," Kahmunrah commanded as he approached Larry among the wreckage. "Well, well, well, well! You certainly know how to make an entrance, Mr. Daley. I hope for your little friend's sake here that you also figured out the combination."

Isis watched them argue and banter over Jed and the tablet. Kahmunrah was like a child and wouldn't see sense through his stubbornness. Watching them argue was like watching a tennis match. Her head turned one way then the other more times than she could count due to his pacing.

"I will give you precisely five seconds to give me that tablet and tell me the combination," Kahmunrah nearly growled out his demand when his soldiers reappeared lead by young Al Capone.

"We already got the combination," he said. "It's Pi. 3.14159265. See, crazy-hair here, he sang." The gangster held up a bobble head of Albert Einstein. "Oh, oh, oh, did he sing! Like a canary."

"I'm sorry, Larry," Einstein apologized.

Kahmunrah took the tablet from Larry and tossed Jed carelessly behind him to be caught by a worried Larry.

"Must be a real bummer for you, Larry, knowing that all of your valiant efforts were, in the end, for naught. What a terrible disappointment you must be to yourself." Kahmunrah replaced the tablet in the doorway and entered the combination. The tablet began to glow its usual golden hue and gave off an ethereal humming.

"Do you hear that humming sound? Do you know what that sound is?" Kahmunrah asked. Ivan raised his hand, as if to answer. The Pharaoh sighed. "It's rhetorical," he answered dryly. "That is the sound of the End."

With a sound like stone cracking and scraping, the door opened to reveal a chasm of light shining through dark clouds.

"Welcome to the new extended reign of Kahmunrah, fifth king of Egypt, and now the world! Horus! Ra! My warriors, come forth! Send Larry Daley and his friends to their doom!"

Bird-headed warriors emerged from the dark chasm and surrounded the area to do their master's bidding. They stood at attention before pointing their spears at Larry at Kahmunrah's command.

"Halt!" cried a remarkably large voice. They all looked around to see Octavious bravely standing up to all of their enemies. "The mighty Octavious had returned. I ride on the back of nature's most fearsome creature! I ride the squirrel! Do you wish to surrender honorably? Or must this end with the spilling of your blood?"

"This?" Kahmunrah asked Larry, nearly laughing. "This is your big rescue?"

"Oh, no. This is!" Octavious shouted.

Everyone started as the statue of Abraham Lincoln stepped into the room in all his statuesque glory.

"What is that thing?" Kahmunrah asked as if he were disgusted by the sight of the former president.

"The name is Abraham Lincoln and you, sir, are in a heap of trouble," he said sternly with a large and threatening finger pointing in his direction.

Kahmunrah commanded his soldiers to attack it, but their spears only served to irritate the larger-than-life president. He knelt down and began flicking the half-pigeons, as he called them.

Frightened, the warriors fled back into the chasm and shut the door behind them, not listening to their master in the slightest. Abraham declared his business done and left to go back to his monument before giving a vague piece of advice to Larry regarding a divided house.

"What now?" Ivan asked.

"You know, I'm not quite sure. I suppose we should start by watching him die," Kahmunrah suggested with airy irritation, looking pointedly at Larry.

"Streltsy! Make him dead!" Ivan commanded.

A bugle sounded behind them and Kahmunrah groaned.

"Now what?" he whined. Behind them stood their friends from the museum, including Amelia Earhart, all lead by General Custer.

"We are not going to attack, right now!"

They all cheered at Custer's words and ran out in what seemed to be a plan of attack. The battle commenced immediately all around the room. Isis looked around for a weapon and saw a sword laying at the bottom of the treasure pile. She picked it up and hefted it into her hands, grateful that it seemed like a genuine article and not just a cheap replica for show. She doubted herself for a moment, wondering if she had it in her to harm their enemies.

"Well, they are just wax," she said to herself. She heard a screeching behind her and saw that Al Capone's men had Dex surrounded. She approached quickly and placed the sword at Al's neck.

"Drop the weapons!" she commanded.

Al huffed out a dry laugh. "Boys," he called to his henchmen. They immediately pointed their guns at her instead of Dex, letting the monkey escape. She smirked at them.

"You think the museum put bullets in those guns? No," she answered for them. "On the other hand, I have a very sharp sword and no qualms about cutting through animated wax figures. Drop the weapons!" The clatter of guns was heard as they did just that to save their boss from being beheaded. She allowed them to scamper off and turned to see who else she could save, possibly with the same bluffing strategy. It wasn't like she actually knew how to fight, not that they needed to know that.

When she turned, a Russian soldier pointed his axe at her in a threatening manner. Before she could even lift the sword in retaliation, Attila picked him up and threw him into a group of French soldiers.

"Thanks," she responded gratefully as Attila nodded to her. She approached Kahmunrah through the fray of the battle. She rounded on him and punched him straight in the nose. He reeled back from the surprising blow, clutching his injured face.

"There is no way in hell I would ever obey you!" she shouted. Bodies fell between them and she couldn't reach Kahmunrah as he began to fight Larry. She saw them conversing as Kahmunrah held a khopesh to Larry's neck. The Pharaoh lunged back to attack and Larry blocked with his flashlight. Everyone had stopped to watch the fight between the guard and the Pharaoh. In a complex pattern of moves she could barely follow, Larry disarmed Kahmunrah and pinned him in an awkward position with his flashlight just as Amelia reopened the Gate of Kahmunrah.

"What are you?" the Pharaoh asked in astonishment.

"I'm the Night Guard," Larry declared and shoved Kahmunrah through the open gate. He struggled in the dark space, screaming in denial, when Amelia shut the gate to many happy cheers.

Everyone shouted and cheered their victory as they looked around to their friends happily. General Custer declared their win at the Battle of the Smithsonian.

"I hate to cut the party short," Isis interrupted, "but we only have an hour till sunrise. We've come this far, Larry, we can't leave them behind."

"They don't want us there anymore," Jed argued.

"Well, we do," Larry said with finality. "Amelia, do you think you could hook us up with a ride?"

She smiled. "My pleasure, of course."

"Izzy, can you get everyone on Amelia's plane? There is one last thing I've got to take care of."

"Go on. Meet us back at air and space."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Isis and Amelia had loaded up the exhibits that belonged back in New York into one of the planes from The Air and Space Exhibit. Larry joined them after a brief excursion to allow the giant squid to bathe in the reflecting pool.

After a seemingly long and anxious ride back, they touched down outside the Museum of Natural history and began to file out.

"Alright everyone," Isis announced, "buddy system. To the basement immediately. No dawdling." She ushered them towards the steps and saw Dexter carrying the tablet inside. "No, no, no, Dex. Ancient Egyptian tablet is going with the only Egyptian here. Help Jed and Oct…never mind, Larry has them."

Isis hurried them inside as Larry said goodbye to Amelia. She walked briskly to the Egyptian exhibit as the museum came to life just minutes before sunrise. As she entered the long hallway towards Ahk's tomb, the pharaoh himself stepped out and caught sight of her.

"I know there is a lot of explaining to do," she started, "and I promise to tell you everything, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. All you need to know now is that Dexter stole the tablet when they were shipped to the Smithsonian, your brother is an ass that can't let go of a grudge, and it's almost sunrise so you need to go back in your tomb." She stopped right in front of him as she finished speaking and expected him to ask a few questions as he went back to his sarcophagus. But he did none of these.

Instead he only stood staring at her as if he was dumbstruck.

"What?" she asked, confused by his reaction.

"You—" He paused to clear his throat. "Where did you get that?" He gestured to the outfit she was wearing.

"Courtesy of your brother, long story."

"My brother?" he asked with surprise. "What happened?"

"Weren't you listening?" She shook her head and knew the night was nearly over but continued calmly. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, I promise. But right now it's almost sunrise. Come on." She made to move past him to replace the tablet and hopefully encourage him to get back in his tomb when he caught her gently by the hand to stop her. When she looked around at him she was puzzled to see concern and worry consuming his features.

"Ahk?"

"Did he hurt you?" he asked quietly.

She was struck by how sincere and deep his worry was. She knew Kahmunrah could be quite... troublesome, and perhaps on the scarier side of insane with his plans foiled time and again. But Ahk knew none of what had happened. He could only assume the worst, believing his brother to be capable of far more than what Isis had witnessed that night.

"No, I'm fine," she replied seriously.

He sighed in relief and nodded. She squeezed his hand firmly, wanting to console him and to assure him that everything was fine through that touch.

"Can you be here first thing tomorrow to explain?" he requested politely.

"I'll be here. I promise."

They didn't let go of each other's hand as they walked up to the sarcophagus. He detached reluctantly as he climbed into the casket and watched her walk around to replace the tablet where it belonged. She turned and helped him pull the lid over.

"I'll be here first thing when you wake up," she promised before letting the lid fall into place right as the sun rose.

* * *

The second movie is officially over. There will be a few chapters of Ahk and Isis goodness before we get into the third movie. Please let me know what you think.


	13. Chapter 13

We are already at 30 reviews! Thank you!

Sorry for posting a little later in the day.

Now for those who have been patiently waiting for more Ahk and Isis goodness here is a little teaser. Next chapter will be even better.

* * *

Izzy stepped into the tomb just as the tablet started to glow. Walking past the guards, she couldn't help but notice they didn't attack. Ahk had said as much before. But not only did they not attack, they inclined their heads to her as if in a silent greeting. She didn't command the respect, it seemed, to warrant a full bow. But she was left puzzled at the statues' behavior. Previously, their actions consisted solely of watch, bow or attack. She wondered what had caused this new development. She returned their gesture and they seemed satisfied as they went back to watching their king emerge from his sarcophagus.

Seeing it for the second time wasn't nearly as frightening as the first. Now, knowing full well what was happening, it seemed more like the re-birth of a king rather than the rising of an undead man. She sent him a pleasant smile as he climbed out and caught sight of her.

"You wanted an explanation," she said, "so, here I am."

"Yes. Please start from the beginning."

She breathed a heavy sigh, readying herself for the explanation she had prepared.

She told him everything, from Dexter stealing the tablet to Kahmunrah being thrown through the door into the Underworld.

"That's quite a night," Ahk said with his eyebrows raised. "And where did the attire you wore yesterday come in?"

"Oh, right." She rolled her eyes at the memory. "Kahmunrah seemed to think that I was the Goddess Isis in human form. He said I would be like a good luck charm during his reign and wanted me clothed accordingly."

"My brother was always fascinated with the power of the gods. Even to a superstitious level."

"What? Am I not good enough to be an earthbound goddess?" She smirked as she teased him and he smiled at her playful manner.

"I merely meant if you truly were the Goddess Isis in human form then you would know it."

"Well, I'm definitely not then. Too bad, it would be nice to be able to work magic."

"You work your own sort of magic, Isis."

"You think?"

"Of course. Perhaps fate is your magic. No one else happened to release me from my imprisonment out of the goodness of their hearts. Then, of course, you came to work here to protect everyone. If it weren't for you, my brother would have taken the tablet. You do more than you realize. Isis is the guardian goddess of magic and perfection and I can't think of any human more perfectly appointed to represent a goddess and carry their name."

A beat of silence passed as they stared at each other and she absorbed his words.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "I don't think I have ever received such a compliment before."

"Perhaps you need to hear more compliments then. You looked like a queen yesterday. And your hair looks lovely in its natural curls." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, lighting her already dark cheeks with a red tint.

"Larry is back," she stated suddenly. "He's going to start working here again starting tonight. He should be gathering everyone for an explanation. It should be fun to see his side of the story. He'll probably go into more detail than I did."

"If you knew Larry would explain, why did you come to tell me yourself?" Ahk asked.

Isis smiled. "I promised you I would."

* * *

"My parents gave me this tablet some 3,000 years ago, entrusting me with one of my people's most prized possessions." Ahk explained to the tour group as they stopped at the podium where Dexter held the tablet for all to see.

"Does it do anything?" a girl asked.

"Do anything?" Ahk asked.

"Yeah, what's the point if it doesn't do anything?" another girl retaliated.

Ahk looked torn for a moment as he looked to Dex. After an encouraging chatter from the monkey, he made the decision to tell them.

"Actually, it has a magical power that brings all the exhibits to life," he said dramatically and with copious amounts of enthusiasm.

"No, really, what's it do?" the second girl asked.

Ahk looked dejected. "Nothing it's just for decoration," he deadpanned.

"I knew it," the first girl whispered to her friend. The group moved on and Ahk waited for the next to gather to tell the same story, hoping they would be more receptive.

"Don't worry, Ahk," Isis said, approaching him after that group left. "They're just kids."

He looked at her night guard uniform, more than a little disappointed.

"You're not in your Egyptian outfit for the grand opening?"

"I'm hired as a night guard, not an 'actor'." She stressed the word sarcastically. "Besides, that has been stored away deep in the bowels of this museum, hopefully never to be seen again. We can only hope that in the chaos we left behind at the Smithsonian that they won't notice several of their artifacts missing. Not to mention the exhibits that went missing from the equally chaotic federal archives."

"It's a shame. It suited you. You looked like a true queen of Egypt."

"Play your cards right and maybe I'll wear it for Halloween." She winked at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Izzy sat at the desk in the foyer just having finished with closing the museum after the extended night hours. The night program was a huge success. Everyone enjoyed the 'actors' and the 'special effects' that were exclusively held after the sun went down. But at midnight each night, the doors would close again and they would go back to their nightly routines. Everyone enjoyed teaching the children in person. Teddy rode around on Tex like a warm breeze, greeting the patrons with his usual enthusiasm. Even Attila seemed to have a soft spot for telling the children stories though she still couldn't figure out exactly how since she had never heard him speak fluent English.

Now that things had quieted down and everyone was enjoying their time off, Izzy was busy scratching away at a notebook only to be interrupted by Jed and Oct.

"Hey, Princess, settle an argument for us." Jed began.

"Sure, what's up boys?"

"If it happened that you had to leave for the night, who would you put in charge in your stead?" Octavious asked.

"Why are you arguing about that? I'm not just going to leave you guys. I promise."

"That's not the point," Jed groaned out. "See, I think you would leave ol' Jedadiah and Octavious in charge. Ain't nobody make a better team than these ol' boys." Jed leaned in as if imploring her to agree.

"I believe you would leave Ahkmenrah in charge. He has a certain personable authority and it is his tablet that is responsible for bringing us to life," Octavious said.

"Well," she said as she toyed with her pen, "I never really thought about it. I guess if I had to leave then I would put Teddy and Ahk in charge. Before you argue-" she hastened to say as she saw Jed's mouth opening to do just that. "They are both respected in this museum and I would trust them to see that everything goes smoothly. Not to mention, one is a president and one is a king so they outrank everyone. And they basically trained Larry and Larry trained me, so…"

"Sure, sure." Jed had a strange smirk on his face as he shared a knowing look with Oct. "This wouldn't have to do with your feelings towards a certain pharaoh would it?" Izzy's cheeks reddened. "Oh come on, I was there for your argument with Kahmunrah. He might have been more messed up than three-day-old roadkill but he was right wasn't he?"

She glared down at the tiny men. "Is this what the whole debate was about?"

"We don't know what you are talking about," Oct explained feebly. He shared a panicked look with Jed and they ran back to their car to escape.

"Go ahead and run!" she shouted from the desk chair good-naturedly. "You do this again and I will make you clean your exhibits with a single Q-tip!"

* * *

Tell me what you think of Isis as a person and her pairing with Ahk.


	14. Chapter 14

Before we begin a few responses to reviews.

Thanks to those of you that tell me Isis is an excellent/believable character. I work very hard to make my characters their own person. It is one of the highest compliments I can receive!Thank you!

The Silvernote suggested I should go into her background some more. Don't worry we will get there. This chapter goes a little into her background as well as containing some Ahk and Isis goodness.

Dinosaur Imperial Soldier asked how soon we will see the Secret of the Tomb beginning. Chapter 15 will be the start of that movie.

Dinosaur Imperial Soldier also asked how soon we will see thier relationship develop. I meantioned in the description that this was a friendship leading into romance. You will be rewarded for your patience with a teaser next chapter. But for their relationship to really begin I have to ask you to be patient. It is well worth the wait!

* * *

The next night after closing, Isis found herself bent over the floor scrubbing at ash stains on the floor with a wire brush and sniffling to herself as she wiped at a stray tear.

Apparently the primordial men had gotten into the lost and found and discovered a lighter. What their obsession was with fire, she would never know. She could only guess that it was hardwired into their waxy DNA, so to speak. She sniffled again and scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. A pair of boots appeared in her vision just before she heard the voice they belonged to.

"Something troubling you, my dear?" Teddy asked.

She cleared her throat, not looking up so he wouldn't see her red face. "I'm fine, Teddy. Just a bit of a headache before I came to work. I'll be alright."

"My dear, Isis. If there is anything I have learned it is that suppressing things can only hurt you. You must let them out to truly heal." He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Take a walk with me. Tell me what has happened."

"It's just stupid," she said roughly, scrubbing at her stinging eyes with her sleeve. "My boyfriend broke up with me."

Teddy's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

Izzy shrugged. "Yeah, we started dating before I took this job, but when I left for the Smithsonian he had a lot of questions that I couldn't answer. He never liked that I spent so much time working and when I'm not here I'm working on my book. So, he ended it. Don't tell anyone else. I don't want them to think it's their fault. They will think I am so childish for crying about it anyways."

"Tears are not just for children. Some people come into our lives and we believe they are the journal upon which we will write the story of our lives. When, in fact, they are nothing more than a piece of scrap paper to write a brief thought on. And only once we have reached the end of what they can give us do we realize what they were all along."

"That's actually really helpful, Teddy, thank you."

"Of course," he said as he patted her shoulders. "Perhaps you should replace that smile back on your face and get back to enjoying the job you love." She couldn't help but smile at the sage old man.

She went back to work, finished cleaning up the ashes and resolved a disagreement between the whale and the dolphins. There was a lot of squeaking, clicking and wild gestures but she somehow managed.

"Isis?" Ahkmenrah called from down the hall just as she left the oceanic exhibit.

"Hey, do you need something?"

"I was just wondering if you were alright. Teddy told me you were upset about something but he neglected to mention why."

"I'm better now that I've talked to Teddy. He is remarkably good with advice. I was just upset because my boyfriend broke up with me."

Ahk felt a strange stirring within himself. He felt upset at her misfortune and a strange uneasiness knowing she had past lovers.

"I wasn't aware you were being courted," he said uncomfortably. "What happened?"

She took a deep breath and let her eyes wander around the hall and the floor, suddenly nervous to discuss her personal life with Ahk. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him or that she didn't trust him. She did. She was just afraid that of what he would think of her explanation. "He was asking a lot of questions about why I took a trip to D.C. so suddenly and, honestly, what was I supposed to tell him? The truth is more farfetched than a lie. But I couldn't give a reasonable explanation and he assumed I must have run away to be with another man." She wrinkled her

nose in distaste at the thought, discretely looking at Ahk to gauge his reaction. "But I couldn't give him any proof that it wasn't true. So, he ended things."

"I'm sorry your relationship suffered because of all of us."

"It's alright. I guess if he couldn't trust me then I really didn't need him in my life anyway."

"Isis?" he asked, calling for her attention, and she stopped looking all around them in her nervous state to look directly into his eyes. "You deserve more than a man that cannot trust your word. You deserve so much more."

"Thanks, Ahk. That's really nice to hear."

"Someone needed to say it. We really appreciate you here. I hope you know that. And I greatly enjoy your company. You remind me of the home I lost."

She reached out and took his hand firmly. "I'm not going anywhere. This place feels like home to me, especially when I'm with you. It reminds me off all the good times I had with my father."

"Will you tell me more about him?"

"Let's take a walk." They started down the hall before she began speaking. "I wasn't exaggerating when I mentioned everything was about history to him. When I would get dressed up he would call me his little goddess and make a big show of trying to gain my favor." She spoke through a smile. "Most of the time his offerings were candy and cookies. He put a little sign on my door labeling it as 'The Temple of Isis' and he would leave plates of sweets out with silly notes. It was really just his way of showing he loved me but he had to tie in history somehow."

Ahk chuckled quietly. His mind had conjured up an image of a much younger Isis dressed in Egyptian clothing, sitting in a chair with her legs dangling as she happily ate a plate of cookies.

"Heaven help us if we found a frog," she continued. "He'd shout 'A plague!'." They both stopped to laugh at her dramatic rendition of her father. "It didn't matter if it was the first time or the hundredth time, it always made me laugh. I started to draw pictures of them and left them around the house just to see him do it again. I miss him a lot."

"What about your mother?"

"She remarried a few years after my dad died. When Roger, my stepdad, first came around I hated him because it felt like he was trying to replace my dad. I acted out quite a lot in that time. That's what led me here, actually. My school trip was to this museum and I hid in the bathroom to stay after hours."

"And that was the day you released me."

"Yeah, it scared me so much that I stopped acting out."

Ahk winced.

"I'm sorry I frightened you."

"It couldn't be helped. Over the years, I grew up a bit and I realized that Roger wasn't so bad. He knows he can never replace my dad but I know he is there for me. He is really nice. I was just too childish to realize it for a while."

"You are lucky to have so many people to care for you."

"I know. I'm just happy I realize it now. Will you tell me about your family?"

"Well, you have already met my brother."

"Was he always like that?"

"Not to that extent. We were never very close. He loathed that my parents' favor always fell on me."

"Were you a good king?"

"I tried to be. I did my best to bring prosperity to my people. Though, looking back on it today, owning so many slaves doesn't count in my favor."

"Unfortunately, that was the time. But people have wisened up over the years."

"Yes. My reign didn't last long. My brother wasn't happy with my parents' decision to pass the throne to me rather than to him, the firstborn. He decided to take fate into his own hands."

"You mean he—" she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Did he kill you?"

He nodded. "He was never one to give up so easily," Ahk said with a sigh.

"I'm so sorry."

"No need. I have long since accepted it. 3,000 years is a long time to hold on to so much hate. I don't love my brother but I don't hate him."

"What about your parents?"

"My father loved us dearly. My mother was the most beautiful woman in all the land. They were so in love with each other." He paused, glancing sideways at Isis. "I miss them terribly."

"Maybe you will get to see them someday. Forever is a long time. Maybe someday some museum curator will be adamant about reuniting your family."

"I can only hope."

* * *

Romance to come soon! Tell me your thoughts.


	15. Chapter 15

Thank you for all of your positive reviews!

Here we are at the start of the third movie and with more reviews now than I thought I would ever get!

* * *

Years later. Prep for the grand re-opening.

Isis walked onto the balcony of the new planetarium to see Ahkmenrah planning and orchestrating the constellations.

"Hey, Ahk, how's it coming with the constellations?" she inquired.

"They are doing wonderfully. The choreography is nearly done."

"Hmm, pharaoh, king, DJ, linguist, choreographer. Is there anything you can't do?" she questioned teasingly.

"I'm sure there is something."

She feigned surprise. "Modest too! Careful or your fans will start catching on. All those lovesick teenage girls that visit you at night will start to have more reasons to come once they know you aren't just a pretty face to mount that crown upon."

He chuckled. "We are about to do another practice round. Would you like to see?"

"I've got some time before Larry hunts me down like the slave driver he is rapidly becoming."

He placed his hand on her back and guided her to the balcony overlooking the dining area.

"Stand here."

He gave the signal for the constellations to be let loose. They burst forth like sentient fireworks of the most exquisite kind. Her mouth hung open in awe as they spun around the room, dancing through the air with grace and poise. She felt Ahk's hand on her's and allowed him to lift her arm with her palm up over the edge of the balcony. A string of shining stars flowed into her palm and formed into an apple. It shined, weightlessly, like a thousand glittering diamonds.

As Orion passed he loosed an arrow and shot straight through the apple, making the diamond-like structure burst like an explosion. The shattered remains of the apple glittered in the air like dewdrops in the sun as it moved and reshaped itself into a rose right before the shine slowly faded away into nothing.

Her mouth felt dry. Her skin warmed and tingled under his gentle touch at her arm and back. Her other hand was poised over her heart as it attempted to beat out of her chest. She forced herself to calm as the constellations disappeared and she turned to see Ahk.

With his hands still on her wrist and back, she knew he was close. But she hadn't realized just how close their faces were until she turned to look at him. Only then did she know that he had been staring at her for the entire performance. He must have seen how flustered she had been before she composed herself.

He looked at her with a sort of admiring hunger like a man that could finally see color for the first time in his life.

In all the years that Ahk had existed, never had he seen a more glorious sight that Isis reacting to the constellations. The uninhibited awe and wonder in her eyes had captivated him more than anything he could recall in his 4,000 years. Her delectable dusty pink lips had parted and heaved breath after breath as the stars danced in a show just for her. He could feel the tremors of pure energy and sensation coursing through the muscles under his palms. And then her eyes had turned to him and the awe was replaced with want and need so potent that, if it were tangible, it could have been bottled and sold as the most precious commodity on the whole of the earth.

"That was-" she began. Was there a single word accurate enough to describe what had just transpired? She couldn't find one. Luckily, she didn't have to.

"Yes," he agreed.

"Izzy? Hey-" They broke apart at hearing Larry's voice around the corner. "There you are. How is everything going?"

Both of the Egyptians were grateful that Larry had been too consumed with the preparations for the grand re-opening that he didn't notice their cheeks tinged red nor the awkward air he had just walked into.

"Great," she said quickly through her dry mouth. "The preparations are going great."

"Great. Can you check how the Civil War guys are doing polishing Rexy? And remind them they really have to get into all the spaces of his tail."

"Sure," she answered and ran off without another word.

"How are you doing Ahk?"

He smiled remembering how much Isis had enjoyed the constellations. If their patrons enjoyed it even half as much as she did, it would be an enormous success.

He watched Isis as she left, their eyes meeting again as she spared him an admiring glance just as she rounded the corner.

"Everything is going wonderfully, Larry."

* * *

"Hold still!" Isis barked at Teddy for the third time.

"I can't. I'm just so nervous."

Isis had been fighting with Teddy for the last five minutes to prepare him for the grand reopening.

She and Larry had foregone their uniforms for more formal wear. While he wore a suit she had donned a lovely halter top evening gown in stunning ruby red.

"Quit moving for a few seconds or you are going out there with a crooked mustache. There is no need to be nervous," she assured him as she held the comb gently. "You are the President of the United States. You can make a simple speech. You already know it by heart. There!" She exclaimed when his mustache was perfect. "Now, get on Tex and get in position. I've got a few last minute checks to do."

She was hurrying over to Columbus when Ahk and Larry stopped her.

"Hey, Izzy, Ahk needs us to check something out."

"Can't it wait? We're nearly ready."

"I'm afraid it can't," Ahk replied with a worried tone.

Neither guard was accustomed to hearing the resident pharaoh sound so grave. She nodded and they hurried along the corridors to his tomb.

"It's the tablet. It's turning green and I can't help but feel as if it is worse than it seems."

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Larry asked as they gazed at the strange green area taking over the tablet.

"Never. This corrosion has never happened before. It's always been exactly the same." Ahk stated as he studied the tablet closely.

"Well, corrosion doesn't just happen overnight and no one has mentioned this before," Isis mused quietly.

"I wonder what's up with it," Larry remarked.

"I have no idea. And to be honest, my father knew the secrets of the tablet better than I did. Unfortunately, he swore he'd never reveal them. He never did."

Ahk gasped softly as the corrosion grew. He leaned back, suddenly unsteady on his feet. Both guards placed a hand on his back to steady him.

"Whoa," Larry voiced with worry.

"Ahk, are you alright?" Izzy asked.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine." Although he sounded sure of himself, the night guards couldn't repress a simmering feeling of worry.

"Just take it easy out there tonight, all right? You got fifteen minutes till show time. We're gonna figure this out tomorrow," Larry said as he walked out of the tomb.

"Ahk, are you sure you're alright? That didn't look good."

"I'm fine, Isis," he said with more conviction.

"Alright. I've got to go. Columbus is worried he found a scratch on his torso. I'm hoping it can be a quick fix," she said as she walked past the statues of Anubis and out the door.

"Isis," he called to stall her movement. She stopped and turned back around. "You look lovely tonight."

His words were welcome. She had worried that the backless dress was a bit too revealing. She had also wondered if she should have taken up her mother's offer to borrow her high heels rather than the low black ones she was currently wearing. But if Ahkmenrah approved then she should stop her worrying.

"Thanks," she beamed.

* * *

I know I tease you so much with their relationship. But it is coming up and it will be worth the wait.


	16. Chapter 16

My goodness we are nearly at 50 reviews! As a treat for you when we get to 50 I will answer any NON-spoiler questions to be posted on the chapter immediately following the 50th review. Ask away!

* * *

She waited in the foyer with all the exhibits, waiting for Larry's cue over the walkie.

His voice scratched out from the device. "Cue the music."

"Alright, Teddy, doors, be ready," Isis ordered.

"And Teddy in 3, 2…" Larry's voice scratched again. Isis waved at them to begin.

The doors opened and Tex carried Teddy through the doorway into the throng of people.

"Since 1869, when I was a mere boy of 11, this museum has been a shining beacon to our great city. Tonight we'll expand out horizons even further to the sun... the moon and the stars. From our very beginning mankind has looked to the heavens and given names to what he saw. The constellations. I thought you might like to meet them." Teddy spoke boldly to their captive audience.

"Cue the constellations," Larry spoke through the walkie talkie again.

The dazzling constellations flew around the room like children on a playground. "Orion, the hunter!" Teddy shouted for all to hear. All eyes locked on Orion as he was introduced. He shot straight through a shining, starry apple that planted itself directly over McPhee's head.

"Good. Going great, guys. Going great. Let's drop the silks and go with the monkey," Larry ordered.

Everyone awed over Dexter as he began his routine.

"Thank you for your patronage and your unwavering support of this fine institution," Teddy continued, speaking over the delighted chatter of the crowd. "This newly renovated planetarium will serve as a lens..." Suddenly he began to babble nonsensically. Random sounds and bits of quotes spilled from his mouth. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends!" he shouted.

He launched himself onto the nearest table, knocking glass about and pulling his gun as if ready for a hunt.

Isis looked around the foyer in alarm. The animals were calling out and acting wild. Ahkmenrah, who had been standing next to her, fell against the wall gasping for air.

"Ahk? Ahk! Are you-" The animals stomped on the ground and each began stampeding through the halls, passing the pair too close for comfort. She grabbed Ahk under his arms and began heaving his body to the closest utility closet. She set him down on the floor and closed the door with a resounding slam. Shoving a stepladder underneath the handle, she finally felt safe enough to check on him.

Ahk's face had gone an unhealthy ashen gray. He looked as if he couldn't breathe. Maybe he wasn't. She wasn't even sure if he needed to breathe anymore. But it seemed like a vital question now. The din of clamoring bodies, roaring animals, and the screaming and shouting of the people outside was constant in her ears. Having dropped her walkie talkie in her haste to get Ahkmenrah away from the stampede, she had no way of knowing what was going on until it was over.

She ghosted her fingers over the skin of his cheek. It felt dry and brittle as tissue paper. She held his hand gently to comfort both of them. She sat beside him, their hands in her lap and waited for whatever this was to pass. His stare never wavered from the ceiling, nor did he blink or focus his eyes on anything. She tried her best to whisper comforting words and stay calm. What felt like an eternity and a half later his face steadily began to return to his natural color and he took a deep gasping breath.

"Are you alright?" Isis asked.

"What happened?" he replied, sitting up.

"You just about passed out I think. The whole museum went crazy. You looked really pale and sick. How do you feel now?"

"I feel fine. I don't remember what happened."

"Is this because of the tablet?" she asked quietly.

"It would appear so. We should check to see if the corrosion had spread."

"Yeah, I think things have died down. We should go now." If Ahk's return to normal was any indication, then that meant that the exhibits should be back to normal, too.

Izzy removed the stepladder and they left the closet and hurried back down to Ahk's tomb for the second time that night.

"Oh, no," Isis whispered.

"It's spread more."

Slowly creeping upwards through the tablet like mold, the corrosion encompassed nearly a third of the previously shining gold.

"What do we do? Can you fix this?" Isis asked the pharaoh next to her.

"I'm afraid I can't. I don't know enough about the tablet to even know what is wrong with it."

"We should tell Larry. We can figure out what to do from there."

By the time they returned to the foyer, the patrons were gone and everyone else had begun to disperse from what must have been something akin to a scolding from the usually gentle male night guard.

"Hey, guys, do you know what's going on here?" Larry asked when he saw them

"We believe the corrosion on the tablet is the cause of what happened tonight," Ahk answered.

"The corrosion has grown since when we looked at it last," Isis added.

"Alright," Larry nodded. "Well, I'll do some digging for information in the morning. For now, let's just get everyone back to their exhibits safely. We don't want anyone outside when the sun comes up."

* * *

Sorry for the little chapter! My original chapter breaks left little chapters like this and others at about 5,000 words. After reworking them the longest chapter was chapter 2 at over 3,700 words.


	17. Chapter 17

Sorry, it's a bit later than I usually post. Because it is Memorial day here in the U.S. I forgot it was a Monday.

To answer a few questions:

The Silvernote asked if Ahk and Isis would be getting together soon. Yes, but I will be teasing you more first.

Dinosaur Imperial Soldier wanted to know if Cecil Fredricks would be in the story. He will be mentioned in this chapter but he will not actually be making an appearance.

* * *

"I'm just looking for anything you have on the tablet of Ahkmenrah."

Larry stood in the records room of the museum, speaking to the woman that maintained it while she played games on her office computer.

"You're not the first. The other night guard is looking at them now." She pointed absentmindedly down the rows of books and documents to a table at the end. Izzy sat there, pouring over folders and journals. She must have been there for hours. She was still in her evening gown from the night before and he guessed the shoes on the floor had been removed long ago. She looked haggard and exhausted from being up all night researching. She looked up as he approached.

"Oh, Larry. I was wondering when you would get here."

"How long have you been here?" he asked.

She groaned softly and ran a hand through her wild hair. "All night. After all that happened yesterday I got a headache and couldn't shake it off. All this stuff is a nightmare."

"Have you found anything?" He sat down and reached for the closest pile of papers.

"I have been looking through the record of the exhibition. I must have read all of this once and skimmed it two more times. I haven't found anything useful." She groaned again and let her head fall onto her hand as her elbow did all the work to keep her aloft. Larry picked up the picture from the exhibition.

"I wish we could talk to these guys," he hoped vainly.

"Well, you can't. Because they're dead," said the woman that oversaw the records as she sat down at their table.

"Right, but look at that one. Looks like a kid, huh?" Larry pointed out the smallest figure in the photograph. Plucking the photo from his grasp, the woman looked at the photo with an air of nostalgia. Her hand caressed the photo of the boy as she sighed longingly.

"You didn't know him, did you?" Larry asked.

The woman nodded. "C. J. Fredericks. He worked here."

"He worked here?" Isis asked.

"Yeah, when he grew up. He was a night guard. Same as you two."

"Wait a minute. CJ. CJ Fredericks. Cecil Fredericks?" Larry asked astonished.

"Sexiest night guard we ever had. Present company included. Trust me on that." The woman sent a wink to Isis as she gestured to Larry. "Boy, could that man move." The woman sighed again and left the table.

"You know him, Larry?" Isis asked.

"Yeah, he was the night guard before me. I'm going to go talk to him."

"I'll come with you."

"No," he hastened to answer before she could grab her things. "No, you've been up all night. You should go home and get some rest. You've got a shift tonight. I'll call you if I find anything useful."

* * *

It was several hours later when Larry called. Izzy had already showered and took a short nap but her light headache remained from all the stresses of recent events.

"Izzy, hey, how are you feeling?"

"Better," she answered. "What did you find out?"

"Ahk's parents are in London. I got McPhee to transfer Ahk and the tablet to the London Museum so we can ask his father how to fix it."

"I'm not even going to ask how you managed that," she said as she massaged her temple.

"Anyway, I've booked us plane tickets. So, I need you to pack a bag. They are going to pack Ahk and the tablet tonight and we are taking him to the museum on the first flight out in the morning."

"That's great."

"Yeah. It's business so pack your uniform. I'll be at the museum to pick you and the crate up in the morning. Would you mind telling Ahk tonight? I would be there but I've got to get home and pack for me and Nick."

"Nick's coming?"

"Yeah. He's got some stuff going on. I think it would be good to have him travel with us. We will see you in the morning."

* * *

That night she tried to get Ahk alone to tell him the news, but with tensions running high in all the exhibits she had instead assembled everyone and explained.

"We think," she began loudly over the hustle and bustle, "that Ahk's tablet was the cause of what happened yesterday. What Larry and I will be doing is taking Ahk and the tablet to the London Museum where his parents are to see if Ahk's father can fix it." She glanced over at the pharaoh.

Ahk stared at her in reverence, captivated by her words. He would be seeing his family for the first time in millennia. If the circumstances weren't so dire it might have been a dream come true.

"So, who get's to go to this shindig?" Jedadiah's voice called out from the masses.

"Ahk, Larry, Nick and I will be going with the tablet," Isis said. A roar of jumbled voices protested.

"Awe, come on Princess," Jed shouted over the din, "that ain't fair. We've got just as much say as you do."

"Jed, calm down. They have only sent one box to safely transport Ahk and his sarcophagus as well as the tablet."

"Actually, Isis, the box is much larger than I need. We could easily transport several of our friends along with me," Ahk said unhelpfully.

"Yes, Lady Isis. We shall join you in your quest." Octavious shouted nobly.

"Look, guys-" Isis began.

"We won't leave you to do this alone, my dear," Teddy said.

"We are all a part of this," Sacagawea elaborated calmly. "We want to help."

Attila and Laaa, their newest edition to the museum who shared an uncanny resemblance to Larry (much to his dismay), shouted out their agreement along with several other exhibits.

"Guys!" Isis shouted for order. "Look, I know you all want to help but you don't know how much Larry had to convince McPhee to ship Ahk and the tablet out. I don't even know how Larry managed it! For now, let's just think about the situation. We need to clean this place up in the meantime. We will discuss who goes closer to sunrise. But only two people get to go." Groans and grumbles filled the halls as they all began to clean their home.

In the end, she had ended up giving in to everyone that wanted to go, despite her earlier limit of only two people. She slid the top back over the crate just as Larry pulled up in the moving van.

* * *

I'm still answering any non-spoiler questions. Ask away.


	18. Chapter 18

Thank you all for reading!

The Silvernote asked if this story would end after the plot of the third movie. The short answer-no. For this story, the third movie ends on ch 23 while there will be a total of 28 chapters.

To Dinosaur Imperial Soldier, sorry you were disappointed by Cecil not being in my story. And your crossover story does sound like an interesting combination.

* * *

After a long plane ride, they were finally in the moving van headed straight to the museum just before dark.

"Alright," Larry said as he pulled over to an abandoned side of the road. "Izzy, you need to get in the crate. And Nick you need to get down on the floor."

"Why?" chorused the youngest two in the van.

"One of us needs to drive the van away. That will be Nick. One of us needs to be on the other side of the gate to let Nick in. That will be me. You can get into the museum in the crate and open up the door for us."

They didn't argue with the plan. Izzy closed the back door of the van behind her and squeezed herself into the packing peanuts, waiting for the crate to be unloaded.

After a bit of back and forth with the British Museum Night Guard, Tilly, they unloaded the crate. Larry slipped out of sight and remained inside the gate as Nick drove off. Just a few minutes later Nick approached as Tilly slept in her guard cubicle.

"I'm not an expert but this is feeling, just, really against the law," Nick worried as he bounced up and down. Larry knocked on the door.

"No, they have a totally different legal system here," Larry assured him.

Isis opened the door and they rushed inside.

"How are we doing?" Larry asked.

"All clear," Ahk confirmed as he approached, already holding the tablet.

"Alright, let's go," Larry said.

"Larry, the others felt, perhaps, we could use some help," Ahk mentioned before Larry could get too far.

"The others?" he asked.

Teddy popped out of the box of packing peanuts.

"Lawrence, I couldn't sit idly by. Our very survival is at stake," Teddy declared proudly.

"You knew about this, Izzy?" Larry turned to the young woman who was carefully avoiding his eyes.

"Well..." She drew out the single word painfully slowly.

"Izzy..." Larry spoke sternly like a father to their child.

"What was I supposed to do, Larry? They sent a gigantic box. They all volunteered. I couldn't stop them."

"What do you mean 'all'?" Larry questioned.

Attila sprung up from the packing material, blowing the foam peanuts out of his mouth.

"Alright," Larry sighed. "Teddy, good. Good man to have in a crisis. And Attila for some muscle." Sacagawea lifted herself from the floor of the box next to Teddy.

"Hi, Larry. Don't be upset with Isis. We all insisted on helping," Sacagawea said calmly.

"That is a deceptively large box," Larry commented.

"Obviously," called the voice of Octavious, "we came along, too." Octavious and Jedediah made themselves known from on top of Attila's hat.

"You know you'd be lost without us, Gigantor," Jed called out arrogantly.

"Are you serious?" Larry asked Izzy. She gave a guilty look and Dexter jumped out of the sea of packing peanuts as well. "And the monkey. All right, basically everyone." Larry said out loud but mostly to Isis.

"Well, Larry..." Isis began in an even more guilty tone than before. One that Larry was quickly learning to dislike immensely. Laaa popped up from the box, scattering packing peanuts everywhere.

"Dada!" Laaa called out excitedly, using the term of endearment the Neanderthal had started using for Larry back in New York. Apparently their resemblance was not lost on the cave man.

"Oh! No, no, Izzy, why? No possible benefit whatsoever," Larry huffed out indignantly.

"He really wanted to come," Ahk defended.

"He wouldn't stay behind," Isis clarified.

"So Lawrence, what's the plan of attack?" Teddy asked.

"We need to find the Egyptian wing, find Ahk's father, and hopefully get the tablet fixed."

Larry took Laaa to the back door and taught the caveman to guard the door. More to keep the rambunctious Neanderthal out of their way for the night than anything else.

"How are you feeling?" Isis asked Ahk. "Excited?"

"Yes. It's been too long," he answered.

"Okay. Listen up guys," Larry announced. "This place is waking up for the first time and we have no idea what's out there, so stay together, all right?" Everyone agreed with him. After Ahk stored his tablet in Nick's backpack they were off.

XXXXXXXX

* * *

They made their way through darkened corridors and living art sculptures. In the total silence of the closed museum, the art that was missing pieces was as haunting as a zombie-infested graveyard. They moved passed the sculptures without disrupting them. They were reaching the end of a hall decorated with mounted animal heads when a horrifically loud and strong thumping sounded ahead of them. They paused to listen.

"Hear that?" Larry asked.

"Hear what?" Nick asked his father.

A triceratops skeleton sauntered down the hallway and spotted them. It stopped and squared its feet, looking as if readying to charge. Jed and Oct hid beneath the edge of Attila's hat, declaring that it was more comfortable and they were in no way scared.

"We should back away slowly," Isis suggested, "and find another way around."

"Lawrence, I think it's safe to say we are in a bit of trouble. I recommend we follow Isis' plan," Teddy weighed in.

"No, I know how to handle this guy." Larry spoke to a warthog on the wall, asking if he could borrow the tusk below it.

Larry began to call to the skeleton like a dog the way he would with Rexy back home. To everyone's immense surprise, the triceratops lowered itself into a crouch and began acting exactly like a domesticated dog. It whined excitedly.

Larry threw the bone to the skeleton, which caught it in his mouth. For a moment it toyed with it until it bit down hard, splitting it into pieces that it spat out.

"Lawrence?" Teddy said as the Triceratops squared itself with more determination.

"Yeah?" Larry asked in response.

"May I suggest a different plan?" Teddy asked politely with anticipation evident in his voice. The triceratops lowered itself to the floor, readying itself to run.

"What?" Larry asked just before the triceratops roared.

"Run!" Teddy shouted.

They all turned and ran for their lives. The triceratops raced after them. They turned the corner and heard its heavy bones skidding to a halt on the floor and crashing into a weapons case. They ran down the hallway, hoping to find some escape from the monster. Upon seeing a set of heavy, wooden, cast iron double doors, they ran in.

"Close it, close it!" Larry shouted as the last of them made it inside. They pushed the doors closed and placed a flimsy looking plank of wood across them to lock it. There were no other exits. The only way out was passed the gigantic skeleton that seemed determined to kill them all.

"Okay, I think we're-" Larry began.

He never got to finish that sentence. The triceratops crashed not just through the tiny lock bar, but through the whole door, splintering the heavy wood and sending it flying in all directions.

"Get back! Everybody, get back!" Larry shouted and grabbed a mace. Everyone ran behind the giant stone columns, hoping to find shelter from the beast. Ahk placed an arm over Isis and pushed her behind him.

"Alright. You don't want to fetch? Fetch on this," Larry spoke boldly to the skeleton as they faced off. He swung the mace with all his strength at the snout of the triceratops. The wooden handle splintered easier than the door had. The miserable wood clattered to the ground and the beast shook off the blow like an annoying insect in its face.

It reared its head, shoving Larry back into a suit of armor, its horns barely missing him as they buried deep into the stone behind him.

"Oh, that's close!" Larry shouted looking at the foremost horn right between his legs.

"Need some help?" called a voice from just behind him.

"What?" he asked, looking around as much as he felt comfortable with a raging beast just inches from him.

"Move," the voice commanded.

Larry slid out of the way and the suit of armor came to life, slashing and attacking the dinosaur with vigor. The beast was pushed back as the suit gained ground, easily tripping the skeleton by a sword to the legs.

The suit of armor laughed heartily as both parties regained their footing. The triceratops roared and spun around, letting its tail trail outwards, whipping around the room. Attila shouted to warn everyone of the incoming tail.

Ahk stepped back, pushing Isis back between himself and the wall.

Isis watched in horror from behind Ahk's back as the tail nearly hit Larry and slammed into Attila, knocking him to the ground.

"Larry!" Isis warned as the tail came back around. It came even closer to hitting him this time as he tried to help Attila. They had to roll out of the way just as the tail swung downwards, making everyone flinch when the sound of bone on the stone floor hit their ears.

They collected themselves as the suit backflipped over the dinosaur, its horns stuck in a stone column. The suit stalked over to their group as the skeleton pulled itself free.

"You might want to-" Larry began, pointing behind the suit of armor to the free triceratops.

"No," the suit grunted as it slapped away a tail swing with its sword. "Here," it said, holding out the sword for Larry to take. "Hold this." Larry grabbed the sword and, underestimating its weight, let it sink immediately to the floor.

The dinosaur charged with a roar and the suit turned around and punched it right on the nose. It backed off and whined, rubbing the sore spot and tucking its tail between its legs as it retreated.

"That was actually very cool," Nick said with reverent surprise.

The suit of armor removed its helmet to reveal a handsome, brown haired, blue eyed, bearded man. He tossed his long hair back and smiled good-naturedly.

"Sir Lancelot," he declared with a nod, "at your service."

* * *

Page breaks are inconsistent because fanfiction isn't saving my documents right. I have tried to fix them many times. Bear with me.

So, do you think you have been teased long enough with Ahk and Isis' relationship?


	19. Chapter 19

7 reviews just for the last chapter! I never thought my story would be this popular.

To answer a few questions.

Dinosaur imperial soldier asked if they would be fighting the Xianglu. Yes, that will be next chapter.

Guest reviewer Amazing Me asked if we would see Lancelot charming Isis and a jealous Ahkmenrah. What an excellent and scandalous question! Yes, you will see that happening in this chapter!

* * *

"Lancelot!" Isis shrieked, ducking out from behind Ahkmenrah and approaching the scene.

"You have heard of me?" Lancelot asked with a charming smile.

"Of course!" Isis cheered with a star struck smile. "You're a legend. The most famous and renowned knight of the Round Table under King Arthur's rule. That was amazing."

Lancelot lifted his sword from Larry's struggling grasp effortlessly and thrust it back into its sheath.

"So kind of you to sing my praises, my lady."

Teddy interrupted the moment by sticking his hand out for a handshake.

"Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States."

Lancelot shook Teddy's hand firmly. "I have no idea what that means," he said with a sporting smile.

"I'm Larry, and this is my son, Nick."

"You have a noble face, Nick," Lancelot commented boldly.

"Yeah," Larry said. "And this is Izzy." He gestured a hand to Izzy and Lancelot approached her uncomfortably close.

"Well met, my kind lady." Lancelot took her hand in his metal gauntlet and pulled it up for a whiskery kiss, never looking away from her eyes. She laughed nervously, absolutely starstruck from meeting a true legend. Isis had loved the stories her father had told her of King Arthur's Court. While it was an honor to meet famous people like Teddy and Attila, it didn't compare to the admiration of a fictional hero like Lancelot, a name everyone had heard of. The legend spread far and wide to all corners of the world. Unfortunately for Isis, she was the type to lose her head over famous individuals of all kinds and Lancelot was the epitome of famous.

Ahkmenrah looked between the two with a frown. He had never seen her so starstruck over anyone. He couldn't help but wonder if she felt something for the knight.

Lancelot turned back to Larry. "Now you," he said to Larry. "You remind me of a man I once knew at Camelot."

"Really?" Larry said with a pleasant smile. "One of the knights of the Round Table?" he guessed hopefully.

"No, Erik. Our fool. He was the funniest fool I've ever met. He was so good. He didn't even have to do anything. He could just walk into a room and you'd laugh. You have what he had. The gift. You could be a fool."

Larry, now completely lackluster for the knight, said, "I don't know about that."

"Oh, come on, of course, you could!" He spoke with sincere encouragement as if he were serious about Larry choosing his true calling. "We'd get you one of those hats with the funny little dangly bells."

"Dangly bells." Larry shot a look back to Isis as Lancelot laughed at his words.

Isis' face had fallen with each word Lancelot spoke. She visibly winced as if someone had stepped on her toes when Lancelot had mentioned a hat with bells. She had backed up to where Ahk stood, observing the interaction between the two men. She leaned in close to his ear so only the Pharaoh could hear her.

"I have... never so instantly regretted my words," she whispered earnestly.

"I'm sure it will be a lesson you won't soon forget." His tone was icy and made Isis look around at him in worry.

"Didn't I tell you?" Lancelot continued. "The gift. He does what seems like nothing, a sort of deadpan." The knight turned his face to an expression he thought resembled Larry's.

"Yeah. Lesson learned. All respect lost in under a minute. That's got to be a record," Isis commented to Ahkmenrah again.

"Sounds like a great guy," Larry said, trying to end the conversation. "We got to get going, so..." He trailed off and they all turned to leave when Lancelot's voice called them back.

"Ah, Camelot. Someday. I shall return to its mighty towers, to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. Sweet... beauteous Guinevere." He had retrieved a cloth picture of Camelot from under his gauntlet, staring at it lovingly before tucking it away again. "But I am sworn not to until I have completed my quest. I must find the Holy Grail!" he declared proudly.

"Well, good luck with that," Larry commented. "And thanks for the help again. We got to get to Egypt, so we'll see you."

"I will lead you," Lancelot offered, jogging to the front of their group.

"No, it's okay," Larry said, eager to get rid of the annoying knight.

"Halt, Dangly Bells!" Lancelot stopped in front of them, holding out his hand to emphasize his words. "There is strange magic in the air and dangerous beasts are afoot. It is the duty of a true knight to protect and care for those in need. We're off." He turned on his heel and with a dramatic swish of his hair he swept out of the room.

"I guess he's coming with us," Larry said.

"Larry," Attila said before continuing in his usual tongue as he worried over his hat.

"Jed and Octavious?" Larry asked.

The Hun spoke again in a rushed and even more worried tone as he desperately searched for the tiny men that had previously been in his hat.

"They must have fallen out while we were running," Teddy said.

They all began shouting for the miniature men and retracing their steps.

"Wait, is that Oct's cape?" Isis asked, pointing to the tiny red cape sticking out of an air duct as it fluttered in the breeze from the artificial wind. They lifted the grate and called out for the men again.

"They won't last long in those heating vents, Lawrence," Teddy said.

"At their size they'll bake like tiny little scarabs in the Sinai," Ahk said matter-of-factly. Everyone stopped to look at him as the imagery hit their brains unpleasantly. Ahk's brows connected as he thought over his words again. "Too dark?" he asked in a whisper.

"Just a bit," Isis confirmed.

Larry smashed open the glass to a maintenance screen and turned the vents off.

"Dex, can you take a look?" Isis asked. A sudden revelation came to her. "Wait, Dex, can you fit in there?" Dex chittered and leapt down to see he could indeed fit just fine. "Larry, are you still set up to track Nick's phone?"

"You track my phone?" Nick asked indignantly.

"Yeah I am and yes I do," he answered both questions. "Great idea, Izzy."

Isis picked up a length of rope from one of the smashed exhibits and brought it over to Dex while Larry and Nick were arguing over Nick's privacy. Larry pulled up his tracking app as Isis and Nick attached the phone to Dex.

"We need you to go down there and find them, all right? Think you can handle it?" Larry asked the monkey.

Dexter saluted and chittered his response.

"Good man. Stay safe." The monkey dropped down into the vent.

They walked along the corridors of the British Museum, following Larry as he tracked Dexter on his phone. Lancelot laughed at the slightest word from Larry.

"Are you quite sure you were enamored by him?" Ahk asked Isis quietly.

Her eyes widened as a telltale blush crept over her features.

"I-I was not enamored! Why would you- How could you say that? I mean, yes, he is possibly the most famous legend of all time come to life, but it's not like I was fawning over him like a schoolgirl." She scoffed her displeasure and her lip pouted, disappointed in herself and put out by his accusations.

"It didn't seem that way when he kissed you." Ahk's words were spoken with an undertone of bitterness.

"It was just my hand!" she hissed at him. She covered the spot where Lancelot had kissed the offending hand with her other, fingers scrubbing absent-mindedly as if they wished to wash away any residual feelings it held. "And I've already mentioned," she continued, "I've learned my lesson after hearing him talk for less than a minute. While he fights and holds up the code like a true knight, he's," her face fell into a sad, almost wistful look, "nothing like I expected. It's like meeting a hero and learning they're nothing but... a buffoon." She gestured to Lancelot with a painful look as he and Larry argued about quests. "I guess I'm just one of those people that can't contain themselves when they meet someone famous. That wasn't half the freak out I had when I met you."

"When you met me?" Ahkmenrah asked.

"Yeah, when I first started to work at the museum. I wanted to hide under a rock for speaking so informally to a Pharoah." She laughed fondly at the memory. "When you kissed my hand... I honestly thought I would be going to hell."

"Why on earth would you think that?" Ahk asked incredulously.

"I just thought it would be improper, given that I would be just a commoner." She shrugged. Attempting to put her old feelings into accurate and sensible words was difficult when they made little sense to begin with.

"This is the 21st century. You have no need to fear persecution for being yourself," Ahk counseled. "Even in my time, you wouldn't be condemned to the underworld just by receiving attentions from a Pharaoh. And you are anything but common." Ahk spoke calmly without the previous bitterness he held. If what she said was true then her reaction to meeting Lancelot was not out of character for her at all. And he never wanted her to change.

"Well other than that, there was the fact I was nervous and wondering if you would remember me from the night I released you. And I was scared I would make a fool of myself in front of you. But I quickly learned what kind of person you are and then I wasn't so afraid." She turned her gaze to Lancelot and Ahk's eyes followed hers to the knight in question. "I guess people just want to believe that our heroes are not only strong and fearless, but kind as well." Her gaze turned back to Ahk and her eyes softened. "And smart and humble and..."

Ahk's eyes met hers and she couldn't have looked away if she wanted to.

She remembered Ahkmenrah the first night she met him when she was just a child. It hadn't entirely been his fault, but meeting him had scared her out of her wits and drove her off the trouble making path she had been on.

He had saved her from Attila the second night of her job and bandaged her hand for her.

Ahk had worried for her safety when he learned she had a run-in with his brother. His eyes roved over her frame as he concerned himself with injuries to her person.

He had protected her from the triceratops just moments ago. Pushing her back against the wall, putting himself between her and danger.

None of the sculptures or exotic animals could hold her interest as long as those eyes of his held her own. Those dark, timeless eyes that regarded her as a jewel more precious than all the ancient items he wore.

"Would such a man find his way into your heart?" he asked.

 _My heart?_ she thought. Had Ahkmenrah found his way into her heart? Well, of course he had. She cared for all her friends at the museum. But a funny feeling in her chest as he stared at her told her he was different. Ahkmenrah was in her heart, much more so than a friend. And it terrified her that she loved a man who was not so much restricted in his schedule so much as... dead. While he spoke and breathed like he was really alive, he was not. He could not live outside the museum. They could not live a life at all. There could be no white picket fence house with two kids and dog and a 9 to 5 job.

While the answer to his question was definitely a 'yes', the choice had to be 'no'. She had to squash down these feelings before they consumed her entirely.

Luckily she was spared having to answer when Larry directed his and Lancelot's conversation their way. "Magic tablet," Larry said. "It's that thing Ahk is holding."

Lancelot peered over his shoulder at Ahk and Isis as they listened in on the conversation they missed. "It shouldn't be hard to take it from him. He seems well-toned and lean... but weak. It would be like taking candy from a feeble Egyptian baby." Lancelot spoke to Larry but his voice carried loud enough for the rest of the group to hear.

"What's a level below no respect?" Isis whispered to Ahk.

"Perhaps distaste?" he suggested.

"Perfect!"

"The fool seems agitated," Lancelot said to Teddy as Larry walked off to check the area on the app.

"That's often his way. But I assure you he is no fool," Teddy responded sagely.

"Is it true what he says?" Lancelot said, addressed Ahk this time. "The tablet you carry is magic?"

"It is indeed. Everything around you has come to life tonight for the very first time all because of this tablet," Ahk replied.

"Amazing. Then they're not real," Lancelot asked as he pointed to the exhibits exploring the large area.

"They're as real as any of us," Teddy responded.

"Yes, but we're real people. They're just things. And they don't even know. They must be unbelievably stupid." Lancelot looked around in wonder.

"Undoubtedly," Isis said cheekily. Ahk gave her a softly scathing look that didn't couple well with his smirk of amusement.

"It can be confusing at first," Teddy said, trying to be helpful.

"Hello, frog!" Lancelot shouted to a passing amphibian. "Keep hopping! You're real!" He smiled widely at the piece of artwork.

"Guys, I think we're going to have to cut through Asia," Larry called from ahead and gestured for them to follow.

"Not a clue," Teddy said, glancing at Lancelot knowingly.

"None," Ahk replied.

* * *

I know, I know. You are thinking, "When will this teasing end!? You torture me too much!"

I have strung you along for 19 chapters! That's far too long. Please wait until next chapter to finally see some Ahk/Isis goodness!


	20. Chapter 20

A thousand and one apologies for not updating on friday! There has been constant stress in my house due to my kitchen floor being torn up for necessary re-tiling for the last two weeks! And if that wasn't enough my husband scratched his cornea while trying to tear up the nails and had to go to the hospital. (he will be fine, don't worry.)

I promised you Ahk/Isis on friday and here we are on sunday!

Here is some promised Ahk/Isis!

* * *

They had just exited a room of tapestries and vases from the Asian exhibit when a tiny golden statue with wings appeared, blocking their way. The tiny creature held its hands out in the attempt to stop them.

"Hey guy we're just passing through," Larry said to the little sculpture.

It chattered incessantly at him and shook its head.

"It's a Garuda from Tibet," Teddy supplied knowingly.

"A Garuda? Hi, Garuda, how are you doing?" Larry asked. It mimicked his words happily. "Cool, great." He attempted to sidestep the Garuda only to have it shuffle sideways with him and block his path again. "You know what? We just got to get through. We don't have time. I'm not going to play this game. I've really got to get through." The Garuda pointed to the room behind it and shook its finger in the negative but they soldiered on anyway. As they approached they could see the statue of a gigantic snake in the next room. Its multiple heads writhed and undulated sleepily and it clicked its metal scales together.

"Get back," Larry whispered to their group. They split into two groups on either side of the doorway, peering into the room to their next obstacle.

"A dragon," Lancelot said eagerly.

"No, it's not a dragon. It's a-" Larry looked over to the placard of information, "it's a Xiangliu. Mythical snake demon."

"It says it's got nine heads," Isis supplied, quickly reading over the information at hand.

"It looks like a dragon. I say we kill it." Lancelot looked excited and ready for the challenge.

"What?" Larry asked in surprise. "No, it's asleep."

Lancelot wore a thoughtful expression. "You're right. It's not very sporting to kill it while it's asleep. Let's wake it up and then kill it." His excitement returned in spades. "I shall go first and I shall take the boy."

"What are you-? No! You're not going to take the boy," Larry hissed across the doorway to Lancelot.

"Why not?" he asked with obvious disappointment.

"Because he's a boy!" Larry defended.

"Larry, there comes a time in every man's like when he must slay his own dragon," Lancelot said.

"Not this kid, all right? He still hasn't finished all his thank-you notes from his Bar Mitzvah. Anyway, that's just an expression."

"Not where I come from," Lancelot answered nobly.

"He is not going to slay his own dragon right now."

"We are not having the "boy becomes a man" speech right now," Isis whispered harshly to both child-like men, "so, shut up. We are going around it quietly."

They hurried inside as quietly as possible, making it around the snake demon without waking it when the tablet in Ahk's hands glowed green again. Ahk groaned and collapsed against Larry who managed to catch him before he hit the floor. Isis helped him to the floor, knowing he couldn't move in his current state. Teddy stuttered and began speaking loudly as if he were addressing a crowd.

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." He repeated the famous words along with more of the speech that became garbled as he went on.

Sacagawea had frozen completely, as shown when Attila waved his hand in front of her face with no response. The snake, coming to wakefulness, turned one of its heads in their direction and Attila began shrieking like a little girl, waving his hands about and hiding behind Larry.

The Xiangliu woke up fully, tossing its scaly heads about the room and rose to its full and considerable height in the suddenly tiny room.

"Fantastic!" Lancelot called out, gaining everyone's attention. "It's awake! Now we can kill it!" He drew his sword and charged, swiping away at each head that approached.

"Dad!" Nick called out when one of the heads began to attack him.

"Nicky!" Larry ran off to help his son, leaving Isis with the rest of their party.

"I'll get the boy!" Lancelot called out. Larry didn't have the chance to argue or help as one of the heads wrapped around him.

"Attila!" Isis shouted at the Hun as she moved forward between the snake and her friends. "Grab Ahk and get him out of here!"

The only response she received was more panicked screaming. She groaned and pulled Teddy's sword out, fitting it into her hands. She shoved the blade deep into the mouth of a snake that tried to go for Teddy. The snakehead recoiled in pain, swinging its body about to ease the pain.

Lancelot and Nick were battling side by side. Isis stood in front of her friends and hacked away at snakes that attempted to get past her. Larry ran behind her and quickly returned with a charging defibrillator. He leapt over the snakes and went straight for the heart of the metal structure, shouting for them to clear. The pads connected and the Xiangliu shook from the electricity running through it. Each head collapsed on the floor with heavy thumps.

"These things really do save lives," Larry panted out.

Isis repressed a shiver of adrenaline and turned to give Teddy his sword back. When Teddy reached for the sword his hand refused to bend around the familiar object. They exchanged a worried look as Isis replaced the sword for him.

Larry found the tattered remains of his phone.

"How are we going to find them now?" Ahk asked, quickly recovering.

"Lawrence, I fear we've turned a corner." Teddy held out his immobile hand. "I'm becoming wax again, son."

"Alright." Larry composed himself and thought. "We'll look for them later. We've got to get to Egypt now."

"Wait, shouldn't we keep looking for Jed and Octavious?" Nick asked.

"If we don't get to Egypt soon we're not going to save anybody," Larry answered sadly.

The words suddenly struck a cord in Isis. She was suddenly terribly anxious and afraid. Maybe this was the end of the magic. Could she say goodbye to all these people here and now? Had they said and done all that needed to be? Could she say goodbye to Ahkmenrah?

No, she couldn't. The fear of what could never be spurned her in a decision she was sure she had to make now. The others had already started down the hall when she called out to Ahk, who trailed at the back of the group.

"Ahk?" she called out shakily. He stopped as the others pressed on.

"Isis, are you alright?" he asked.

It warmed her heart to hear him so worried for her.

"I'm fine. Are you feeling alright?" she asked. Her body buzzed with adrenaline, continuing to help her with what she was about to do.

"The tablet is getting worse but I'm fine now."

"Are you more yourself now?" She wanted to make sure he would remember this.

"Yes," he answered curiously. He could see her body shaking and was about to ask again if she was alright.

"Good," she answered briefly before putting her hands on either side of his face and pulling him down to meet her. She crashed her lips against his and tried for everything she was worth to put a decade of emotions into the kiss.

She pulled back, blushing furiously and feeling wonderful at accomplishing the goal she had only seconds ago set for herself, but for a long time had wanted to do.

She was about to speak, but her voice was paralyzed by his surprised stare. It wasn't what she had expected. She let go of him and followed their group without a single word. No matter the outcome of the night, she felt she had already lost.

* * *

Feel free to tell me how terrible I am for all I have done to you.

Soon! So, so soon ladies and gents!


	21. Chapter 21

To nacheell. Is this an early enough update for you?

To iloveavocados123. As the author I apologize for making you so distraught. Breathe and keep reading.

To Dinosaur Imperial soldier. Thank you for your reassurance, I don't actually think of myself as terrible but I felt bad for forgetting to update.

To The Silvernote. Sorry to hear you are sick! Get well soon and enjoy more of my story.

Apologies to the anon guest reviewer and the guest reviewer going by rascal. The painting scene in the movie was amazing! It surprised me when I first watched it. But my apology is because that scene did not make it into my story. I don't like to put every part of the movies into the story as it seems to drag on when you read about what has already happened without any sort of change. I tried to focus more on what Isis has changed by being in the story.

K. J. Bollinger, I think everyone is happy that they kissed but I'll bet everyone is frustrated with Isis right now.

Enough of my rambling, read on!

* * *

"This is it," Larry said as they entered the area for Egyptian artifacts.

"Perhaps I should accompany you in," Lancelot offered.

"No, I think we got it from here," Larry said.

"Really?" Lancelot asked skeptically and slightly disappointed.

"Yeah, no, we're good," Larry insisted awkwardly.

"Right. Well... friends..." Lancelot clapped Nick on the shoulder. "Larry... clown-faced keeper of the magic tablet. I shall never forget your bravery. Nor your jests."

"Bye," Larry said.

"I shall not say goodbye," Lancelot began with an air of heroics.

"I will," Isis deadpanned. "Goodbye. We are wasting time." She turned on her heel and stalked away from the group.

The others caught up with her quickly.

"I haven't seen these walls for many a moon," Ahk spoke reverently.

A woman dressed regally in ancient Egyptian clothing appeared from behind a pillar.

"Ahkmen?" She called out. She picked up her long dress and hurried across the floor.

"Mother." Ahk stood dumbfounded, staring wide-eyed at the woman he had not seen in countless years. He strode closer and mother and son embraced tightly while she sobbed gently.

A man appeared behind the same pillar, wearing a set of robes and jewelry to match the woman and carried a staff even taller than himself.

"Father," Ahk said as he detached from his mother.

"Welcome home, my son." Ahk's father embraced him in a one-armed hug as Ahk returned the embrace with vigor. They soon detached, far too early for any of the three that had been separated for millennia.

"I want you to meet my friends," Ahk swept his arm out to his companions.

"I am Merenkahre. Pharaoh of the Nile and Father to the Son of the Sun," Ahk's father introduced himself.

"I am Shepseheret the Glittering Jewel of the Nine Kingdoms," Ahk's mother said.

"And I am Larry," Larry threw in awkwardly.

"Guardian of Brooklyn," Ahk supplied for him, making him sound much more impressive than he was.

"Yes. Actually, I live in Manhattan now," Larry said in a slight undertone as he attempted to set the record straight.

"I know but it doesn't sound as cool," Ahk whispered back.

"Yeah," Larry continued, turning to Ahk's parents. "We would be very honored if you could take a look at the tablet. There's something happening with it. We don't understand what it is." He spoke with more embellishment than he typically showed, making it clear that he was appealing to their royalty.

"You are speaking with a pharaoh," Merenkahre informed him. "Kiss my staff." He shifted the item forward and set it back down with a thunk. Larry stood there awkwardly and blew it a kiss when no one came to save him. It seemed his desire to appeal to their propriety ended with physical actions of loyalty.

When blowing a kiss didn't seem to be enough, Larry kissed his hand and placed it on the staff, earning him varying degrees of unease from all Egyptians present.

"Is it okay if I don't?" Larry asked.

"You will show respect," Merenkahre ordered, pulling his staff back to his side. "I am the descendant of Ra, the Sun God."

"I understand that and I totally respect you. I just don't pray to Ra, so-" Larry attempted to patch the situation but only managed to make it worse.

"The Egyptian gods are the only true gods," Merenkahre stated with finality.

"Well, we try to stay a little more open-minded," Larry explained. "I mean, Sacajawea, she honors her spiritual ancestors and you pray to some goat god, Attila?" He referenced two of his friends behind him. "I'm half-Irish, half-Jewish."

"You are? I love Jews! We owned 40,000 of them!" Merenkahre spoke jubilantly as both he and his wife smiled.

"Such lovely people," Shepseheret cooed.

"Here we go," Ahk groaned out tiredly, embarrassed by his parents being extremely behind the times.

"They were very happy, always singing with the candles," Merenkahre reminisced.

"Yeah. They weren't really happy," Larry corrected.

"Really?" Shepseheret asked with surprise.

"No, they left. They spent about 40 years in the desert trying to escape."

"Oh!" Ahk's mother replied with more surprise.

"Yeah. We have dinner once a year and talk about it. It's a big deal for us. But, hey, Izzy believes in the Egyptian gods. She's Egyptian herself."

Isis looked around at Larry, not wanting to be put on the spot in front of the parents of the man she had just kissed moments ago.

"Step forward," Ahk's father ordered. Isis did so nervously. Merenkahre held out his staff. With a sidelong glance at Ahkmenrah, she leaned forward and kissed the staff lightly.

"What is your name?" he asked as he pulled the staff back to his side, considerably more satisfied that she had done as he wanted.

"Isis Porter," she answered.

"Guardian Priestess of America," Ahk supplied a new title, the young pharaoh forever branding her as such.

"Will you, please, look at the tablet?" she asked. "We're afraid that the magic is dying."

Ahk handed the tablet over to his father, in turn taking the staff from the older man's hands. Merenkahre looked it over worryingly.

"It's losing it's power," he said softly.

"Can you fix it?" Isis asked.

Ahk's father hesitated. "To do that I would have to divulge the secret of the tablet."

"I promise we won't tell anybody," Larry said placatingly.

"No." Merenkahre's word was firm and left no room for argument.

"Father, why do you insist on keeping this to yourself?" Ahkmenrah asked.

"The secret was to be passed down to you at the proper time."

"Well, it has been 4,000 years. Now seems like a good time."

Ahk's father sighed and patted his son's cheek fondly.

"You were born at midnight. I was Pharaoh and I had seen wonders most men only dream of. But when I first gazed upon you... you were instantly more precious to me than all the wonders of the ancient world. I knew I could never bear to say goodbye. I commanded the High Priest to create a gift to you, my son. Using all we had learned of the mysteries of the afterlife. Forged in the Temple of Khonsu, God of the Moon and watcher over night time travelers the Tablet of Ahkmenrah. Our tomb was designed to channel Khonsu's rays down to the tablet, rejuvenating its powers every night. The Moon God bestowed his power upon the tablet so that, as long as it bathed in his light, our family could be together forever and not even death could part us. It's been away from Khonsu's light too long."

The corrosion spread suddenly, the brilliant gold taken over by terrible green. Ahk gasped and Isis was upon him in an instant. Having been the fourth time she witnessed this, she knew it would only get worse. She helped lower him to the ground gently.

"Ahk!" she called to him.

"My son! What is happening to you?" His mother fretted over him from his other side.

Again, his skin aged in front of their very eyes. He swayed as Isis helped him down. He hadn't the strength to keep upright on his own.

"It needs moonlight," Merenkahre said to Larry. "Otherwise, we shall all be dead by sunrise. Hurry! If this tablet dies nothing can bring it back!"

Larry took off out of the room, leaving them to worry over Ahk.

"Isis-" Ahk managed painfully.

"I'm not leaving you. Larry is going to fix this. And I'm sorry about earlier."

After a short time his skin steadily healed back to its original healthy glow and his breathing gently evened out from the painful gasps he had been taking.

"Lancelot took the tablet," Nick shouted as he skidded back into the room.

"What?" Isis shouted back at him.

"He took the tablet. He says it's the Holy Grail and ran off with it."

"You guys go," Isis said to her friends. "See if you can head him off."

"We're coming, too." Ahk spoke with surprising strength considering what he had just endured. They exchanged a mutually nervous look and Isis nodded her agreement.

The four Egyptians meandered down the halls. The two women sticking close to Ahk to support him if need be. They heard Larry and Jed speaking just as they all converged on the same spot. She didn't even have time to welcome back their recently-found miniature friends before all conversation focused on the tablet and it's effects.

"I don't understand," Teddy said, holding his wax limbs at his side awkwardly. "Why is Lancelot staying strong while we get weaker?"

"It's his first night," Merenkahre explained. "Newborns are stronger. But it matters not. Unless we succeed, he, too, will be dead come the dawn."

"We can't let him leave the building." Larry hurried to formulate a plan. "Sir, can you go back to Egypt, in case he comes through there?"

"Of course," the elder pharaoh agreed. He and his wife hastened back the way they came.

"Nicky, take Attila, check the loading dock."

"Got it." The pair rushed off, carrying Dexter with them.

"Teddy, Izzy, and Ahk go to the south wing, cover the side doors. I got the main entrance."

The trio did as they were told, checking the whole of the south wing as quickly as possible.

"He's not here," Teddy stated.

"No," Izzy said with disappointment, looking out a window and following the fleeing knight with her eyes. "He's outside."

Lancelot had taken a horse from the museum and rode off on it out into the night and down the street. They rushed off to the main entrance as fast as their legs could carry them.

* * *

Next time on The Pharoah's Beloved, we get to the real, (really, really, real) reason you have waited so long. The climax! The pinnacle! The admission of (drumroll please) Feelings!


	22. Chapter 22

To iloveavocados123 there is more than just two chapters after this one. There is a total of 28 chapters in this story. I think I told you that the third movie will be ending two chapters from now.

Fair warning there will be feels in this chapter! Tears of any kind are allowed.

* * *

Minutes later found them all in the front of the museum regrouping and planning.

"Everybody okay?" Larry asked as he looked around.

"Yes, Lawrence," Teddy replied. "Attila and your boy secured the lady guard in her booth. I don't know how long it will hold her, though."

"We've got to find Lancelot but somebody has to make sure she doesn't get out. "Laaa raised his hand and grunted to volunteer himself. "You know what you have to do?" Larry asked.

"Stay!" he said adamantly.

"That's right. Just make sure she stays in there. Go!" Laaa ran off at Larry's command, shouting reminders to himself to stay.

"Lawrence," Teddy began with mounting worry. "I can't move my arms. We're becoming less useful by the minute."

A wave of life seemed to leave the group as they all buckled under the loss of magic again. Isis caught Ahk as he slumped to the ground, holding him tightly.

"Come on, Ahk. The night's not over yet. We've got till sunrise."

The man she held looked at her tiredly. His expression darkened. "I'm not so sure we have that long."

Larry worked with a frantic Attila to calm him down and soon they were back to their old selves.

"Dad, there's, like, 8 million people in this city," Nick stated. "He could be literally anywhere by now."

"We'll find him," Larry assured everyone as well as himself. "We have to."

They hurried along the streets only pausing to bring order to animated statues of lions.

"Where the devil could Lancelot be?" Teddy asked. As if his words had summoned a sign from the heavens themselves, a bus drove by with a dreadfully obvious clue.

"Maybe he went to Camelot?" Isis suggested, seeing the advert for the musical on the side of the Double-Decker.

They made their way onto the bus looking like the oddest bunch of cosplayers ever. Many stared and a few took pictures. When they arrived at their stop outside the theater everyone was fleeing the building like it was on fire.

"Looks like this is the place," Larry quipped.

Pushing through the frantic crowd was difficult but with Lancelot in sight their resolve hardened.

Hugh Jackman, playing the part of King Arthur, was on stage, lamenting the loss of the show for the night. Isis grit her teeth and forced herself to keep running with a mental mantra of "now is not the time" as they rushed past the stage hands and up to the roof.

"Hey!" Larry shouted at Lancelot as they rushed out the door to the roof. "Give me that tablet!"

"Stay back! Stay back!" Lancelot shouted.

They all paused. Lancelot had grabbed a torch from the set and carried it in front of him as he rushed up to the roof to escape. But it seemed Lancelot was a wax sculpture and the heat had melted his nose. Lancelot shouted as he realized his mistake and doused the flame quickly. He drew his sword and pointed it to Larry.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

"It's not great," Larry admitted reluctantly.

"But I'm Lancelot!"

"There never was a Lancelot!" Isis shouted back at him.

"You said I was legendary!" he screamed, pointing the sword at her from her place on the stairs.

"You are a legend. You're just a story." She pleaded with him to understand.

Larry stepped forward. "I know it's a lot to take in but please, just give me the tablet."

Lancelot laughed humorlessly. "Oh, and then what? Back to the museum? Stand there as little children ogle and point?"

"And learn." Teddy, in all his seemingly infinite wisdom, spoke up as he implored Lancelot to understand. "And get inspired to do great things. There are far less noble fates, my friend."

"Not for me, there aren't." Lancelot's face fell into a deep sadness. "If there is no Camelot. There is no Guinevere and no Lancelot. Then I'm nothing. I'm just a sad lump of misshapen wax. Stop looking at my nose!" His anger and vanity returned as he lifted his sword to Larry again.

"I'm not. I'm looking at your eyes! Could you give me the tablet, please? If you give me the tablet I promise I won't-" Larry's eyes continued to dart back to the melted part of Lancelot's face.

"Do not look at my nose! Look away. How hard can it be not to look at my nose?"

"I can't help it!"

"Look to the heavens!" Lancelot commanded. They all turned their eyes to the night sky. "No one shall look at or mention my nose from this moment forward!" He raged and took a moment to breathe. "I'm sorry I forgot what we were talking about."

The tablet glowed green, consuming all but the last centimeter of gold it previously held. Teddy fell backward, now only a wax figure in anguish and pain. Sacajawea froze entirely at his side. Dexter fell to the ground like the others and chittered sadly.

"Larry," Ahk said as he leaned heavily on the railing, his skin aging centuries with every second. "We've run out of time."

Isis helped him relax on the cold floor, a gentle hand behind his neck to support him.

"I'm sorry, Ahk, about earlier."

"I am the one who is sorry." His frail hand came up to grip her wrist beside his head. "You surprised me and I couldn't react properly. I never thought it was appropriate to tell you given our situation, but I have loved you for so long." His tone was sincere and so low it broke her heart in two. "Please don't look. I don't want you to remember me this way."

She placed her hands on either side of his face as gently as possible to not harm his paper-like skin and took in his features. His eyes had turned a milky white like he had severe cataracts. His skin had paled, showing the veins through its cloudy layer, and he looked like every drop of moisture had left him.

"Ahkmenrah," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on him, "I love you for all that you are. I am not going to stop loving you when you look different. I fell in love with you even when I saw you as an ages old mummy coughing up dust. I can never love anyone half as much as I love you."

She leaned down and placed a feather-light kiss on his dry lips. His weak hand held her there by her cheek, urging her to stay longer. They were locked less by the physical and more so by the years of repressed emotions now flooding out like a broken dam. Neither dared to move lest they waste a single second not connected in their last moments.

Ahk felt her tears fall on his face but he couldn't be bothered by them. 4,000 years of waiting and here was one woman that loved him for everything he was, undead and all. Given the chance, he would have gladly waited another 4,000 to see her again. She was worth the wait.

He could feel more than hear the tablet working it's magic again and he instantly felt more alive under her touch than he had ever felt from the tablet alone. He could feel his flesh healing and the vitality restoring him to the way he once was. Ahkmenrah could think of no better way to use it than to deepen the contact with the woman he loved. His other hand found the back of her neck and pulled her lips tighter to his. They kissed lovingly and ecstatically, crying out their joy into the other, never wishing for such bliss to end. Even as Isis began to get dizzy from lack of air, she couldn't stop herself. She had never felt a love like his, nor he, in all his years, had ever loved so deeply and selflessly. Ahkmenrah tore himself away from his beloved as he felt her need to breathe became too desperate. She gasped in air like she had just surfaced from the ocean.

Isis looked beyond relieved to see him healthy again. They stood and walked hand in hand with their old friends, and their newfound friend Lancelot, back to the museum.

* * *

We aren't done here, my dearest readers. Several more chapters, more feels and a happily ever after is to come. But for now, you can hop off the feels train until the next chapter.


	23. Chapter 23

To all the silent readers, I appreciate your quiet support. Though you may not have followed, favorited or reviewed I'm just glad that you have stuck with this story from the beginning. Thank you!

* * *

They strode back to the Egyptian wing where Ahk presented the tablet to his parents. His mother placed her hands lovingly upon his face.

"Well done, my child."

Merenkahre motioned Larry and Isis forward. "Thank you for bringing my son home safely. It's a strange thing... seeing your boy become a man."

"Yeah, it's crazy," Larry agreed. "One day they're riding a dinosaur through Central Park and the next day they're DJ-ing in Ibiza."

Isis said nothing as the fathers had a moment.

"You have both served my family well. We shall build great tombs and bury you with many riches. I, personally, will see to it that your organs are removed and placed in separate jewel-encrusted jars."

"Thank you," Larry said.

"Thank you, for such an honor," Isis added with enthusiasm, knowing what an honor the pharaoh had bestowed upon them.

"Then we're all agreed," they overheard Teddy speaking to the others. "Lawrence, Isis, may I have a word? The others and I have been talking."

"Ahkmenrah's place is here with his family," Octavious cut in. "He must remain here."

With a sinking feeling, Isis looked to the reunited family in fear of losing the man she loved even as they had just discovered one another. But, try as she might, she could find nothing but truth in their words. The pure happiness on Ahk's face as he was reunited with his parents was unlike anything she could have ever imagined. She thought of her own father and what she wouldn't give to have him returned to her. She knew in her heart that he had to stay. Their's could only ever be a temporary relationship. Even if he did love her until the day she died they would still have to say goodbye someday.

Ahk could be with his parents forever and he might never get this opportunity again. She couldn't be selfish. She would have to say goodbye now.

"And the tablet should stay here as well," Teddy continued.

"This is where it belongs," Jed's melancholy voice added.

She couldn't listen to another word, not if she wanted to stay composed. She approached the happy family. She and Ahk shared a heartbreaking look. He passed the tablet to his mother and took Isis by the hand, leading her away from the prying eyes and ears around them and out into a deserted hallway. They stood apart awkwardly, only their loosely connected hands keeping them together. She spoke first.

"The others said you will be staying here."

"Isis-"

"You should," she interrupted. "You should be with your family. That's why the tablet was made in the first place. You've been without them for so long and now you can be here forever. It would be selfish of me to ask you to give that up for my sake. And it wouldn't be fair to you to slowly watch me age and die."

"Isis, I don't care about that. I would happily give all that I own to spend what time we have together. What is unfair would be to deprive you of your chance to live. You must go, Isis, and live the life you deserve. I cannot give you that." He squeezed her hand tightly.

"I guess this is goodbye," she sniffed quietly.

"I could outlive time itself and never again meet a woman like you. I will never love the way I have loved you. You are the girl that released me from my imprisonment and you are the woman I will love for all eternity. As long as the tablet brings me to life I will never forget you."

"That's more than I could ask for."

Of their first two kisses, Isis had been the one to initiate both. On what would be their third and final kiss Ahkmenrah descended upon her lips with a gentle fervor. They stepped closer, meshing their bodies together in their final moments. Hands found cheeks and necks until they were pulled so close they could hardly tell where their own body ended and the other's began. Their lips slid together, a desperation evident in the air around them as they implored their minds to burn these feelings into their very souls so that no amount of time could ever make them forget. When they finally stopped they could not separate, as if their hearts rebelled their fleshy containers, refusing to be apart. He rested the bridge of his nose against her forehead, breathing her in. Even his first breath of fresh air after 4,000 years could never compare to this moment.

Their moment ended when Larry encroached upon the scene.

When he spoke his voice was soft and quiet, knowing he had just ended something special. "Izzy, we've got to go. We're taking a flight now and we can get back while it's still dark." She nodded to let him know she understood.

"Thank you for giving me back my family, Larry Guardian of Brooklyn." Ahk looked to Isis again, imploring her to understand his thanks even as his throat constricted enough that he couldn't say the words. She nodded and squeezed his hand one last time before she was gone.

* * *

I know. I'm bringing you along this crazy up and down roller coaster ride. But I promise every down will be followed by an up!

Just know that I do feel bad for torturing you so much.


	24. Chapter 24

You don't think I will leave you with a sad ending do you? Of course not.

To Context Clueless, thanks for the review! I agree, stories should make you feel something. There will be some good feelings coming to balance out the bad.

To The Silvernote, yes, he is staying. Patience, you have held on for 23 chapters, just a bit more to go!

* * *

Their trip back to the museum was uneventful. Isis, Larry, and Nick were saying their final goodbyes to their friends just before sunrise.

While Larry was with Jed and Octavious, Isis walked Attila back to his exhibit.

"We've come a long way from the first night, huh? You haven't chased me around since then." She choked, remembering it was Ahk who had saved her.

Attila looked at her solemnly and pointed to himself. "My," he pointed to her, "friend."

"You could speak English all this time? Why didn't you say so?" He only winked at her.

She left to see Teddy right before the dawn, Larry having just said his goodbyes to the wise man and leaving to talk to Dexter.

"I feel like I'm losing my dad all over again," she said, trying to keep her emotions from bubbling over. "You were like a father to me these past years, Teddy."

He placed his hands on her shoulders as her eyes began to water. "I am proud of you for what you did. It isn't easy to let go of the ones we love. To be able to let go of Ahkmenrah so he could be with his family takes more love than I could imagine. If you will allow me one last piece of fatherly advice?" She nodded, a tear escaping her eye from the motion. "Do not dwell on what could have been or live exclusively in the memories of the past. Move forward with your life; focus on what may and make it happen. Life is too short to live without happiness. It's time for your next adventure. Good bye, my dear Isis."

They hugged for a long time until the sun was almost upon them and Teddy climbed back on his horse.

"Smile, my dear. It's a new day." And with that, she watched the face of her dear friend turn from rosy cheeks and soft flesh to hard wax for the last time. She left then for the Egyptian exhibit, shuffling her feet past the Anubis guards and resting her tired body on the stone slab that had once contained the man she loved. Her eyes stared blankly at the empty spot on the wall where the tablet used to be.

She did not sob but her tears fell in her grief, down her face, and onto the stone. It reminded her so much of the first night she had come here over ten years ago. She closed her eyes and willed to hear the pounding of fists and screaming, thinking it would bring him back to her if she only wished hard enough.

But no amount of wishful thinking could make the impossible possible.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and twisted around suddenly. Could it be?

Her face fell as she saw Larry looking down at her with a muted form of the grief she felt reflected in his eyes.

"We've got to go," he urged her softly. "The museum is going to open. Come on. I'll take you home."

* * *

Weeks passed with excruciating slowness and not one ounce of her grief had dulled.

Isis hadn't left her room in her mother's house for anything other than the bathroom. She had lied to her mother, saying that her obsession over her papers was nothing more than a combination of losing her job (she and Larry had taken full responsibility for the "misplacement" of museum property) and wishing to work on her book. She finally had a title for it: "The Pharaoh's Beloved".

She worked tirelessly over the keys of her computer, not sleeping and barely eating for days on end. She lost herself in the Ancient Egyptian story and the romance that was so easy to include in it. Her mother forced her away from the computer each night to make her eat dinner, which she hastily ate and flew back to the keys again.

When the 453 page story was finally finished, printed, and put in a temporary binder, she didn't know what to do with herself. She dwelled on the near tragedy and eventual happy ending. Only now did she realized the similarities of the book to her life. In her desperation to finish it, she had made it into the life she so sorely wished to have. A young common woman falling deeply in love with the Pharaoh who ruled over her land. Even if Isis hadn't gotten her happy ending, at least the young woman in the story did.

Someone knocked on her door.

"Yes Roger?" She knew it was him of course. Her mother always knocked three times. Roger was the one that always knocked to the same Shave and a Haircut routine every time. He opened the door.

"Hey, Iz, how's the book coming?"

"I just finished putting it together in the binder." She indicated the white three-ring binder on her desk as he sat next to her on the bed.

"That's great! I'll call up some people, see if they want to publish it. I've got an old friend whose wife works at a publishing company. What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," she said sincerely.

"Maybe you should spend some time with your mother," he suggested. "She's been worried about you ever since you lost your job at the museum."

"Maybe," she said without real conviction.

He squeezed her shoulder. "I'll call some people," he reiterated, standing up to leave.

Isis remained sitting on the bed long after he left, pondering her life and the story she wrote; the story she so wished to live. It seemed to laugh at her, taunting her with a life she could never have.

Suddenly, she shot up and reached for the lighter next to the candle on her bedside table. She flicked it on with her left hand and opened the cover of the binder, determined to burn every single page. However, when her eyes alighted on the word "Pharaoh" in the title, her hand stilled.

She recalled his face smiling at her over the top of her notebook as she asked him question after question after question for her research. He had looked forward to the completion of this story, maybe even more than she did.

She couldn't destroy it. As much as it laughed at her, she couldn't destroy all the longing and desires that dwelled between each page. She would still feel all of that, book or no book.

With the story finally finished she had nothing to do but dwell on the past and mourn the would-be future. She continued to barely eat and sleep. The constant headache that nagged at her was almost as bad as the continual ache in her heart.

She couldn't live like this, day in and day out. She was hardly living as it was. Without Ahkmenrah, she had no idea what she would do with her life. And though she did finally spend time with her mother, the thought of having nothing to do the next day terrified her.

There was only one solution. Only one thing made sense if her life was to improve. Ahkmenrah had wanted her to have the life she deserved but without him there was no living. There was only existing.

She had no job, but she did have a former employer, McPhee, that was grateful for her and Larry taking the fall and getting him his job back. After a few hours work at the computer and a call to McPhee, she sat anxiously for her calls to be returned.

With each day that passed she worried more and more that the calls would never come. The very moment she heard the ringtone for an unknown caller, she flew to the phone like the lifeline it was.

The voice at the other end told her that she had been accepted as the new night guard for the British Museum.

She hung up and immediately began packing her bags and booking a plane ticket. She had called about an apartment earlier so she hurried to call back and accept it.

* * *

A little but necessary transition. Hang in there your patience will be rewarded soon!

I keep saying "soon" don't I? I guess I'm going by chapters and not days. But now that we have 4 chapters to go, I guess it really is "soon".


	25. Chapter 25

ahyeon, thanks for the compliments! Here is their reunion!

nacheell, she does get her book published.

The Silvernote, yes, they get their happy ending soon!

* * *

The days passed slowly in her new flat as she set up her new life. She looked out the window of her top story apartment to see the museum in the distance. She still couldn't sleep. The constant headache she had had since leaving Ahk still bothered her. Her heart felt the excitement but it seemed her head chose to present all of her suppressed negative emotions in the form of pain. But she couldn't be bothered with it. She showered and fussed over her new night guard uniform to keep her hands and mind busy. She ran a lint roller over the pants and shirt almost obsessively.

When the time finally came for her shift to start she dressed and nearly ran the short distance to the museum entrance. She came to the employee entrance and was greeted by a familiar voice: Tilly the Night Guard.

"Oi, you the new girl?" she asked as Isis approached.

"Yes, I'm Isis Porter. You can call me Izzy."

"Isis? What kind of name is that?" Tilly asked with a scrunched up face.

"I'm named after the Egyptian goddess of magic."

"Think you know magic? Well, I'm about to blow your mind!" She leaned in close to whisper excitedly. "Everything in this museum comes to life at night!"

"Yeah," Isis nodded, feeling remarkably like Larry in his awkward moments.

"I mean really alive, like moving, breathing, real talking life."

"Yeah. I got it," Isis whispered, still channeling her inner Larry.

"It's going to blow your mind!" She spread her fingers out from her head and made an explosive sound to emphasize the point.

"Alright. Well, I'm going to go in now."

"Just help wherever you can. You'll understand soon enough. And don't let anything in or out!" she shouted after her.

She hurried through the museum towards the Egyptian exhibit, watching as the paintings and sculptures came to life around her. It was thrilling to be back amongst living history again.

She entered upon a room with walls covered in hieroglyphs. All three sarcophagi were open and empty, with no one to be seen in the immediate area.

She backtracked, searching for a sign of them or someone that could tell her where they were. And soon enough...

"Lady Isis!" a male voice shouted at her. She turned to see Lancelot jogging down the hallway towards her. "How wonderful it is to see you again!"

"It's great to see you, too, Lancelot." He halted just before her. "I was just looking for someone like you."

"How may I be of service?"

"I'm looking for Ahkmenrah. Do you know where he is?"

"Ah," he said with a smile. "He and his family take the tablet to the roof every night to restore its power. Please, allow me to escort you there."

"Thanks, Lancelot. I appreciate it."

He swept his arm out down the hall and they fell into step as they set off.

"Why have you returned? Your home is with the other museum is it not?" His free arm swung jauntily at his side as he rest the other on the hilt of his sword.

"It was. I moved here to work at this museum."

She realized suddenly that being so close to her goal had rid herself of the headache she had had for weeks now. Of course, it could have been the tablet's power as well. Either way, she was grateful for the reprieve.

"It must be more than that," Lancelot insisted. "You have returned for your love, have you not? Your love for the young pharaoh cannot be extinguished by distance. It is endearing to see the strong determination you hold for your love. It reminds me of my dear Guinevere." His tone had turned solemn as he cast his eyes away wistfully.

"I'm sorry about everything that happened."

"No need," he said with the wave of a hand. "I understand now. We educate the children during the day and live for ourselves at night. It is a lifestyle we have all grown accustomed to." They stopped at a stairwell. "This is the door that leads to the roof."

At his words, the door opened from the other side. Merenkahre and Shepseheret were the first to exit, the latter holding the tablet. Isis paid them no mind as Ahkmenrah walked through the

door behind his mother. When she finally caught his eye, he stopped in his tracks. Neither of them could look away.

"Isis," Ahkmenrah breathed out softly.

She felt the same breathlessness in her throat. The need to breathe was suddenly less important than taking in his appearance with every brain cell she had. She didn't want to spare a single one for fear of missing even the tiniest detail about him.

Lancelot jerked his head to the side and sent a meaningful look to the older pair. The three of them quietly slipped out of the corridor.

Ahkmenrah engulfed the space between them in just a few short strides and they embraced as tightly as possible, meshing their hearts and bodies together.

"Ahkmenrah," she whispered into the crook of his neck.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She pulled away slightly to look at him. "I came to work here. I couldn't live my life away from you. It wouldn't be a life at all. And I know one day we will have to say goodbye forever but I couldn't have been happy knowing we could have had more time together."

"You came here to spend your life with me?"

"Yes. It doesn't matter to me what you can't give me. It only matters that I love you and I can't truly live my life without you. Would you give me a lifetime of memories knowing that one day I will have to leave you behind on this earth?"

"Isis, I would wait eons to spend a mere moment with you. Nothing would make me happier than spending my waking hours with you."

He brought his lips down upon hers in a hungry, needy kiss. They both shivered as they stayed stock still, enjoying the moment too much to move. Ahk once again broke the kiss when she desperately needed air. They both grinned like the lovesick fools they were.

"I would like to formally introduce you to my parents."

Isis' eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion. "But you already did that when we first got here."

His face took on an almost sly look. "Yes, but I didn't introduce you as the woman to whom my heart belongs."

Her smile swiftly changed into a look of worry. "Now? I don't really feel prepared."

"You're perfect."

He took her hand in his and walked with her to the place he called home. They walked past the glass cases of artifacts and information up to Ahk's parents as they waited between the ancient walls of the Egyptian exhibit. He pulled her to his side as they stopped in front of them.

"Mother, Father, I would like to properly introduce Isis Porter, Guardian Priestess of America. And my beloved."

Shepseheret stepped forward with her hands out. Isis approached and took them in her own.

"You have helped to bring our son back to us. It makes a mother happy to see her child as happy as you have made my Ahkmen."

"You are Egyptian, child?" Ahk's father asked her.

"Yes," she stated, turning to the elder pharaoh. "On my mother's side."

"And your father?" He asked.

"He believed in the Egyptian gods as much as any of the people under your rule."

Merenkahre nodded. "It seems my son has good taste. Not only does he choose an Egyptian woman, but a priestess and a good woman. I can see you both will be very happy together. I welcome you to the museum as well as into our family."

All four Egyptians smiled, though none as brightly as Ahkmenrah.

"Please let me show you around the museum," Ahk offered.

They started walking away, hand in hand, before Ahk mused quietly, "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"You are a great man. And you did wait 4,000 years. I wonder what I did in a short 26 to deserve you."

"Perhaps it was the child that released me out of the goodness of her heart. Perhaps it was upon that decision that we became destined for each other."

Isis smiled and placed her other hand on his arm, laying her head on his shoulder as they continued through the museum.

* * *

You may think this is their happily ever after. But it's not yet! Just a little bit longer on this roller coaster ride for you.

There have been clues throughout the whole story of what is to come. Now is your last chance to guess! Friday's chapter will reveal the mystery. Try your best at being Sherlock Holmes and guess what the clues were and what that means for the future!

The winner, or the one that gets closest, gets a free question about anything about me or this story.


	26. Chapter 26

To clear something up, just because Kahmunrah thought Isis was a goddess in human form, doesn't make her one. Isis really is nothing but a human girl of Egyptian descent. So anyone that guessed some new magic power about goddesses or priestesses was wrong. She is only named after the Goddess Isis.

The winner of the guessing game will be announced at the end of the chapter, for non-spoiler reasons, obviously.

* * *

A year later Isis trudged up the corridors to the Egyptian exhibit. She stopped around the corner and attempted to compose herself. She felt the instant the tablet came to life as it took her headache away. She was grateful for the pain easing but she felt a sudden, passionate hatred for the tablet and its effects.

She wiped her bloodshot and teary eyes and took a deep breath. She turned the corner just as Ahk and his parents climbed out. Ahk's smile brightened the room as he caught sight of her. But the closer she got it became more apparent that she was upset. The smile fell away from his face.

"Are you alright?" he asked with worry. "What's wrong?"

"Can we take a walk?" she asked, eyeing his parents as they watched with equal worry.

"Of course."

He took her hand and walked to a more private part of the museum. Several wooden benches and potted plants inhabited a resting area near the bathrooms. They sat and pulled each other close for comfort. Isis sat quietly, enjoying the moment with Ahk as he fidgeted nervously.

"Isis, can you tell me what is wrong? You are beginning to scare me."

She held onto his hands and leaned back to look at him with an expression of deep emotional pain written all over her face.

"I've been getting headaches for a while now. I only really noticed it after I moved here. I had a constant headache when we were apart for those few weeks but I thought it was from not eating and sleeping. I went to a doctor to get some tests done and I just got the results today." She took a breath and swallowed, composing herself before she told him. "I'm dying, Ahk."

They sat in complete silence as she allowed him to absorb this fact. He shook his head disbelievingly. She gazed at him sadly and wiped the pooling moisture that had begun to collect at her eyes.

She couldn't be dying. When she had moved to England to be with him he had assumed he would have years with her. He thought he would watch her grow to a ripe old age before they had to say goodbye. She couldn't die now. She had barely even lived. They had had so little time together.

"How long?" he asked breathlessly, still not entirely believing her words.

"It's cancer. If I do aggressive treatments I have maybe a year. If I don't then I have about three months."

"When do you start treatments?"

"I don't. I'm not taking it."

"Isis," he began. She cut off his begging tone.

"Ahk, that's a year of feeling miserable that I won't be able to spend with you. I can have three months where I still feel good. It's still three more months I can spend with you. We knew this had to happen at some point. At least, this way it won't be a surprise and we get to say proper goodbyes. The tablet brings everything to life at night and it makes me feel normal as long as I'm here being affected by it."

"The tablet!" he exclaimed, his clever mind easily putting two and two together. She had never felt sick while the tablet effected her, no one ever did. He put a hand over his face. The tablet had been hiding her symptoms for years, allowing them blissful ignorance of her condition as it slowly festered inside of her, but delaying her treatment and stealing her time. Both a blessing and a curse in one gilded package.

"There's nothing that can be done about it now. When I came back to you, I asked if you would give me a lifetime of memories knowing we would have to say goodbye. Can you still do that for me? Can you keep those memories alive for both of us?"

He clutched her hands in earnest. "I would do anything you ask of me," he replied with morose sincerity.

"Just help me make the last three months we have together worth living."

"Anything. What do you want to do?"

"Can you read me what's on the walls of your room?" she requested with a small smile. "I've always wondered what they said."

"Of course."

* * *

It was only the next night when Ahkmenrah sought her out. Like usual, she had left around midnight to help the exhibits, as was her job. Ahkmenrah had spoken to his parents over the past two nights and this had given him a newfound hope for his beloved.

"Isis?" he called out.

"Right here," her voice answered from down a hallway. They met in the middle.

"I've been looking for you."

"Sorry. I got stopped in the sculpture gallery. What's up?"

"Would you come with me? I have something to discuss with you."

She agreed and they soon found themselves in the same area of benches as yesterday.

"I love you, Isis," he said, holding her hands tightly in his.

"I love you, too, Ahk."

Admitting their love was not new for them. It had been a nightly ritual just before sunrise each morning for the past year. But using it to lead into a conversation had her puzzled at the reason.

"More than anything in this world I wish we could be together forever. But we both know we cannot as we are now. I spoke with my father and Tilly about your death and we have begun to formulate a plan."

"A plan for what?" she asked, still thoroughly confused.

"Do you remember when my father offered to build you a tomb?"

Her eyebrows knit together as she tried to put together his reasoning. "You want to bury me in a tomb? That's... sweet." Despite her pause, she did consider it as a great honor. It was the highest tribute she could ever receive. To be buried like a queen would be a lavish affair.

"No. I want to stage the finding of another sarcophagus so that we may bury you in it for you to be brought here. You will be able to stay with me for all eternity. We have a tentative plan we are working on and we are confident that it will work. I don't think I could ever spend forever without you. You are everything to me. Please tell me you will let me do this."

His eyes pleaded with her to accept this idea as her own filled with tears. She was speechless. Isis could hardly wrap her head around the idea. She had an alternative to a forever death and the opportunity to spend the rest of eternity with the man she loved.

"You want to be with me forever?" she asked. She knew he was willing to spend a lifetime with her, but she had assumed that some time after she was gone he would move on and be happy. But here he was, saying that a single lifetime would never be enough and she couldn't agree more.

"Isis, I have waited millennia for you. I would gladly give everything I have ever owned for the opportunity to love you forever. For as long as I will exist, I will never stop loving you. Your smile is more lovely that 1000 sunrises and your kisses are sweeter than 1000 sunsets. If you let me do this, I will spend every night treating you like a queen to ensure you are the happiest woman this world has ever known. Please, don't make me live without you."

Isis smiled, overjoyed and disbelieving. "What did I ever do to deserve a man like you?"

"Will you stay with me?"

"Forever."

* * *

Isis let Ahk plan their ruse. It made her sick to her stomach to think about her death but she trusted Ahk implicitly. Each day that passed she felt like a ticking time bomb. Despite her knowledge of the plan she still couldn't help but feel like this was the end for her. The word "death" held a finality that turned her stomach no matter what their plans were.

She knew her part of the plan. She only had to ensure someone knew if she fell ill during the day. For that, she was to call Tilly the moment she felt strange. Ahk remained by her side every second of the night, trying very hard not to act like a mother hen.

It had only been a week after she had broken the news to him when Isis came to Ahk with a personal request.

"I was wondering if we could tell my mother about the tablet," she asked. "She's coming to visit to try to convince me to move back home."

Ahk could see why this was an issue. Of course her mother would want Isis to move back home to live out the rest of her days. But due to the plan they had developed, her returning to America would create a potentially difficult obstacle.

"Of course we can tell her. When will she be here?"

"I'm picking her up in the morning from the airport. I can bring her tomorrow night." She sighed. "It will be nice not to lie to her anymore."

"What have you been telling her?"

"She keeps asking why I won't come home and why I keep working. I just told her that's what I want. But I think if she knew about the tablet she would understand."

"Will your stepfather be coming?"

"No. They are convinced that my mom can talk me into moving back home on her own so there was no point in getting a second plane ticket. Will you tell your parents for me? I have to fill out some paperwork to clear her visit with my boss."

* * *

Did anyone see that coming? You silent readers that don't review did you guess correctly.

Congratulations to ahyeon for coming the closest to the answer. You may PM me with a free question about me or this story.

Until next time my dear readers!


	27. Chapter 27

Loveless1018, I know I have tortured my poor readers too long.

ahyeon, we get to see Isis' mom in this chapter!

To my guest reviewer, Thank you very much for a rare review. I wish I could acknowledge all of my readers more. If you will not be reviewing more, know that I understand, I am a silent reader myself.

Context Clueless, That answer seemed to make the most sense and I agree with you about many of the other fanfics out there. I never intended to use the tablet more than it had already been used in the movies. I am glad you approve of the direction I took this in. And by the way, awesome Deadpool profile pic!

* * *

The family reunion at the airport was an emotional one. Isis' mother, Sara, began crying the instant she laid eyes on her child, which prompted Isis to shed a few tears as well.

The taxi ride back to her apartment was filled with catching up and more crying.

Sara spent much time asking questions and generally worrying over her daughter.

"Have you been taking your medicine?"

"Yes, Mom."

"Are you sure you aren't overworking yourself? You don't have to keep working anymore."

"I want to keep working, Mom," she repeated for what felt like the thousandth time.

Sara sighed heavily. "I just don't understand why. You only have a little time. You should be out doing what you want."

"Other than seeing you and Roger I can't think of anything I want to do. I don't want to skydive or climb mountains or anything."

"Then why won't you move home, Isis?" Isis sighed in exasperation. Her mother pressed on. "I know we have talked about this over and over again, but I am just trying to understand. You say you want to see us but you won't do it. I had to hop three planes just to see you. Is this about a boy?"

"Well..." Isis began awkwardly. Exactly how was she supposed to tell her mother she was dating a 4,000 year old pharaoh that was only alive at night? "Kinda." She thought that was both the most accurate and lousy explanation she could come up with.

"Isis, sweetie-" her mother began with strained patience.

"Mom, I want you to come to work with me tonight."

"Oh, sweetie, I don't know if I'm up for a tour. Traveling isn't easy on these old bones anymore. I've been up for so long and the jet lag-" But Isis interrupted her.

"Mom, this is more important than anything I have ever asked of you." She stared hard at her mother, imploring her to see how desperate she was for her to agree. "I promise you will understand everything when you come to the museum."

Sara could see how serious her child was. She nodded.

"If it's that important then I'll come. But I'll need a nap first."

"I will, too. I haven't slept since I left work this morning."

Isis left to grab a spare pillow and blanket to make up her couch as a bed. But before her mother laid down, Isis' worry over another topic had her speaking again.

"Are you disappointed that I didn't want the treatments?"

She had been concerned over the past weeks about what her mother thought of her decision. When her father, Andrew, developed cancer, he had taken aggressive treatments and had survived several months longer than the doctors had predicted.

Now that Isis had been afflicted with the same illness, she wondered if her mother would expect her to do just as her father had done.

Sara smiled sadly.

"If anything I'm relieved. When you told me you had what your father had I was worried you would be going through the same treatment and that you would be in as much pain as he was."

Isis' brows puckered in confusion.

"I remember Dad took the treatments but I didn't think he was in a lot of pain."

Sara nodded. "Your dad didn't want you to see how it affected him. He used all of his energy to spend time with you before he died. You were still so young and he didn't want you to remember him that way. He wouldn't have wanted you to go through the same thing. I'm glad you chose it on your own."

Isis felt saddened that her father had been in so much pain. It was true that she had hardly understood what was happening during the year he had gone through treatments. She only knew that her father would die some time after his diagnosis, but he had spent nearly every weekend taking her out to spend quality time with her.

But her sadness was overwhelmed when she realized just how much her father had loved her to keep all of his pain hidden from her.

The strongest memory she had of her father was soon after he was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, just like hers. He had tears in his honey-colored eyes as he embraced her.

"Isis," he had said. "No matter what, always remember that I love you." He had kissed her forehead and called her his little goddess like he always had.

Though his time and energy worked against him, he had made every available moment memorable.

She sniffled with a newfound appreciation for her father.

"We should get to bed. We need to be rested for tonight."

* * *

"What is it you are so eager to show me, dear?" Sara walked next to her daughter for their short trip to the museum. "Will I be meeting this boy you mentioned?"

"Yeah, you'll meet him tonight. What I want to show you is in the Egyptian exhibit."

"There're not any actors in this museum are there? I told you when that night program opened-"

"'I am from Egypt, my dear,'" Isis quoted. "'If I wanted to see some two-bit actor faking my heritage then there is always Hollywood.'" Isis laughed at her impression of her mother. Sara poked her daughter in the side, making Isis laugh harder.

"I do not sound like that."

"You do," she retorted. "Come on, I have to clock in."

Isis hurried to start her shift and grab a visitor's pass for her mother that was usually reserved for maintenance and construction personnel.

She checked the time on her phone when they arrived in the Egyptian section and was happy to see they had a few minutes to spare.

"This," she said, indicating the three coffins, "is the Pharaoh Merenkahre, his wife Shepseheret, and their son, the Pharaoh Ahkmenrah. When their son was born, Merenkahre commissioned this tablet," she pointed to where it hung on the wall, "to be made by the high priest because he knew he could never bear to say goodbye. The high priest forged the Tablet of Ahkmenrah in the Temple of Khonsu, who blessed it so that their family could be together even in death."

"That's a lovely story."

"Yes, except it's not just a story. It's real. Every time the sun goes down they come back to life because of the tablet, and so does everything else around it."

Sara placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders, looking deeply concerned.

"Isis, did your doctors talk to you about delusions as part of your condition?"

"Mom, I'm not delusional."

"Sweetie," Sara said imploringly, "it's already dark outside."

"No, the sun hasn't set. You can plan it almost to the second." She checked her phone again. Any second now. "You just have to calm down and don't freak out."

Right on cue, Isis felt the wave of magic roll over her, easing away the last of a headache that the medication hadn't been able to help. She stood by her mother as the lids to the three coffins began to shift.

"Isis!" she shouted in surprise. "Really! This joke has gone on far enough!" The family emerged from their resting place and Sara scoffed. "You said there wouldn't be actors."

Isis said nothing, only pleading with her eyes for her mother to understand.

"I'll admit you had me there for a second. But you've had your fun," Sara said.

"It's really not a joke. They lived over 4,000 years ago." She moved to stand by them. "This is Merenkahre, Pharaoh of the Nile and Father to the Son of the Sun." Merenkahre stood tall and proud, enjoying such a formal introduction. "This is his wife, Shepseheret, the Glittering Jewel of the Nine Kingdoms." The regal woman nodded her head in greeting. "And this is Ahkmenrah, Fourth King of the Fourth King and Ruler of the Land of his Fathers." She moved back to her mother who was looking more and more dumbfounded. "Everyone, this is my mother, Sara Brown."

"It's wonderful to meet Isis' mother," Ahk said stepping forward. "She has told me much about you."

"I wish I could say the same," Sara commented with a sideways look at her daughter.

"I think you can see why. Not many are permitted to know of the tablet's power," Ahk said.

"This is what I wanted to show you," Isis explained. "This is why I won't stop working. The tablet doesn't just bring the dead back to life. It rejuvenates the living, making me feel normal. As long as I'm here I feel healthy."

"And the other thing we talked about?" Sara asked not-so-subtly jerking her head in Ahk's direction.

"Yes," she said, linking hands with Ahk and smiling. "Ahkmenrah and I are together."

"Isis wished to show you this to explain why she couldn't go home," Ahk explained. "We have extended the unique opportunity for her to remain here as part of the museum."

"What?" Sara asked, not quite understanding.

"Mom, I love Ahkmenrah. I moved here to be with him. Now that I'm..." it was still hard to say, "going to die, they are planning to make me part of the exhibit."

Merenkahre stepped forward.

"A year ago, Isis helped to save the tablet from being destroyed and she had a hand in reuniting our family. For her help, I have offered her to be entombed with the highest honors I can bestow. We are honored to have Isis as part of our family, both in life and death."

"So this…" Sara began haltingly, gesturing to all of them and trying to understand what they were telling her. "All of this is real? This is really magic?"

Isis nodded.

"And rather than being buried you are going to stay here as part of the exhibit?"

"Yes," Ahk answered. "We are forming our plans. Everything should be ready in the coming months."

They were silent for several moments, watching Sara stare at them.

"Are you okay, Mom?" Isis finally asked.

Sara opened and closed her mouth several times, floundering for a response. "I'm... fine," she answered slowly. "I really just don't know what to make of all of this."

"Do you think it's a good thing?" Isis asked.

"Well, it's better than... the alternative," Sara said, still not entirely comfortable with saying her child would be dying.

"I thought bringing you here was the best way to answer all of your questions. Do you understand now?"

"Yes, it does make a lot of sense now that I know about it."

"Do you finally want to take up my offer to show you around the museum?" Isis asked.

"Well," Sara began, "I only said no in the past because I thought I had already seen all the other museum had to offer. But now..." a smile broke across her face, "I definitely want to see this!"

Isis and Ahk showed her around the museum. The Pharaoh watched both women laughing as Sara was positively tickled pink to be able to ask the exhibits about their own history. He smiled, seeing the similarities between mother and daughter. Sara's exuberance was very much like Isis when she met someone famous.

"I have to admit, I'm sorry I didn't take you up on this offer sooner. This was quite the experience, dear," Sara said as the dawn was drawing nearer.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it so much," Isis said.

"But if I remember correctly, when the sun rises everything will go back to normal, right?"

"Yes," Isis answered. Sara checked her watch and scowled, remembering she hadn't changed it to this time zone.

"We have 23 minutes till the sun rises," Isis said after checking the time on her phone.

"Well, then I would like to talk to Ahkmenrah alone for a moment."

Isis looked between the two, watching Ahk's face turn nervous under Sara's expectant look.

"I'll go ahead and wait for you then," Isis said. She turned and started back up the corridor towards the Egypt section of the museum.

"I'm a bit torn," Sara said when Isis was out of earshot. "You have lived far longer than me but you look so young."

Ahkmenrah had been very worried about this fact. He wondered if Sara would not approve of him solely for their vast age difference.

"So you will have to forgive me while I address you not as an ancient Pharaoh, but solely as my daughter's boyfriend."

His eyebrows contracted in contemplation and they both shifted their gazes to the woman in question as she proceeded down the hallway.

Sara took a deep breath and shook her head.

"I haven't seen her this joyful since her father was alive. For the past year, I wondered why she sounded so cheerful every time she called. And now I can see why. You make her so incredibly happy." She looked back to him with determination. "Can you promise me you will always make her happy? You should know better than I do that forever is a long time. Are you sure what you are doing is the best thing for her?"

Ahkmenrah stood tall and answered her with a resolve he always felt when discussing his beloved.

"I have loved Isis longer than she knows. When she moved here I knew she did so to spend the rest of her life with me. I knew if she lived to be old and gray then the goodbye would be difficult, but any amount of time I spend with her makes a forever without her more bearable. I have lived over 4,000 years without her. But after I met her I felt I had spent those 4,000 years waiting to know her.

"I knew we both felt that no amount of time would ever be enough. When she told me she would die soon I came up with the plan that would allow us to spend more time together as I knew it would make her happy. I have only ever had her best interest at heart and I can assure you that not even forever will ever dull my love for her."

Sara smiled sadly up at him.

"Given the circumstances, I couldn't hope for anything more."

* * *

They made their way back to find Isis assisting Ahk's parents into their sarcophagi.

"What did you two talk about?" she asked as she stood next to his, waiting to say her goodbyes until the next night.

"You, of course."

She smiled slyly and chuckled. When he drew closer she spoke in a lower tone so that her mother wouldn't be able to hear. "What, was it an 'I don't care if you are already dead, I'll kill you again if you hurt my daughter' speech?"

He laughed. "No, actually your mother seems to approve of me and our plan."

"Really?" Isis asked with no small amount of surprise. "I mean, I thought she would eventually but I figured it would take her more time to process everything."

With the dawn quickly approaching they said goodnight and Isis led her mother back to the employee's office to return her guest pass.

"I'll book my plane ticket for today," Sara said as they walked back to Isis' apartment. "If I can still visit you after you are part of the museum then there's not much reason for me to stick around. Besides, I have to go back home and tell Roger about all this. He shouldn't remain out of the loop. After all, he is still expecting me to convince you to move back home."

"You're right. That will be a crazy explanation. Oh, and speaking of explanations," Isis smirked, "now that you know everything, I can finally tell you the real reason I stopped acting like a brat all those years ago."

* * *

Wow, one chapter left and we are already over 100 reviews! Thank you to all of you who have stuck with me through this whole story. Thank you to all responders as well as the silent readers, I know you are out there and I appreciate you!


	28. Chapter 28

Here we are at the last chapter! Anyone feel like crying?

* * *

The first few weeks after her announcement was known, Isis had been learning sword fighting from Lancelot, claiming it was something she always found interesting and had put on her bucket list. But both Ahk and Lancelot refused to let it continue after she had a minor seizure during a sparring session.

Roger had called Isis after her mother returned home. Although he was having a hard time wrapping his head around magic and glowing tablets, he had been immensely relieved to hear the news that he would not be burying his step-daughter. And with his call he informed her that the publishers loved her book and wanted to print it.

Isis and Tilly had been met with a few false alarms when Isis felt particularly ill at home. But the events of her impending death had brought her closer to the strange woman.

It had been two months, three weeks and three days when the time finally came. From the moment she woke up she could feel her headache worsen and her heart beating erratically. Getting to work had been the hard part of the night. She usually walked the short distance but she felt it easier to take the bus down the few blocks. It had been painful to try and make it to the museum. The moment the tablet activated she nearly fell to her knees in bliss. The drugs the doctors prescribed were nothing compared to the miracle that was the tablet. She felt normal under its effects.

She hurried down the familiar hallways to the Egyptian exhibit. She was sure Ahk would panic if she did not meet him there when he awoke. She ran as fast as she could, her body now more accepting of the movement under the effects of the tablet though her heart still protested vivaciously. There were some things the tablet could not help with.

She had been right about Ahk. He had frantically run out of his exhibit, hoping to find Tilly for the news he had been dreading for months. He didn't run for long, though. When he turned the corner, his cape swishing behind him, he caught sight of Isis just down the hall. His relieved smile did her a world of good. It sent a loving pain in her that made her heart clench.

But then everything began to slow. Her legs halted just feet from the man she loved. She saw his relieved smile turn to worry and horror. Ahk caught her as she dropped to the floor, her legs no longer strong enough to hold her up. He kneeled down and pulled her across his lap.

"Isis? Isis! Say something, please!"

"I think this is it."

He looked to a passing sculpture, asking it to tell Tilly to begin the preparations.

Isis felt her heart beating hard and fast as if trying its hardest to get a lifetime of beats into just a few seconds. Tears leaked from her eyes, trailing downward into her hair.

"Isis, remember, when you wake up do not panic. I will be there for you. I love you, Isis."

"I love you, Ahkmenrah. Kiss me." They shared a tearstained, desperate kiss as her breaths shortened with each inhalation.

"Will it hurt?" she asked, her terror leaking into her voice.

"No." His tone was gentle and sad. His hand held her behind her neck just as she had done for him so many nights ago. His other hand busied itself wiping away her tears and smoothing her hair. "It feels like falling asleep."

She looked relieved. When she spoke, her words were softer than and a whisper. "I love you. Smile for me."

He managed the best smile he could. It was worth it so see the smile she returned to him. She blinked once, twice, three times and her face went lax.

Her eyes closed, a final breath passing her lovely lips…and she was gone.

Ahkmenrah's tears fell, heavy and remorseful, as he cradled her body to his. He smoothed her hair and rained kisses upon the face of the woman he loved. Whom he would always love. He remained with her for hours in the deepest pain he could imagine. His lovely Isis was dead and nothing would be the same. It did not matter what plans they had; when her heart stopped beating his own anguish spread forth like a tidal wave, encompassing everything he was until he felt like nothing more than a husk of pure sorrow.

Only after gentle coaxing from his mother did he realize they needed to act. He lifted his beloved in his arms, carrying her to a wooden crate for transportation. He stroked her cheek one final time and watched as she was covered with a sheet and taken away.

* * *

Weeks passed for Ahkmenrah without his love. While Tilly assured him that things were going smoothly, it did little to alleviate the worry and numb the pain of her loss. It was an entire month before their exhibit saw any change. Their particular section had been roped off and their sarcophagi had shifted positions while a fourth plinth had been added next to Ahk's sarcophagus.

Changes began every morning as the exhibit was expanded piece by piece. New artifacts were added to the museum's collection, claiming to be from a previously undiscovered part of the excavation site that had brought the others to the museum.

One of the changes was a new information placard adding the story of the fourth Egyptian to that of the others.

Ahkmenrah had very nearly jumped for joy when Tilly informed him that Isis would be delivered the following morning.

For the first time in Ahk's long life with the tablet, he wished the dawn to come as soon as possible. That morning he crawled back into his coffin with a smile, knowing that in a few short hours his beloved would be beside him again, exactly where she belonged.

By the time the night approached, there were four Egyptians on display and signs outside the museum calling out to locals and tourists alike to come view the newly found queen.

* * *

Isis opened her eyes. Or at least she thought she did. She saw only darkness and knew from her eyelashes bending backward that something was covering her eyes. When she tried to remove it she found her hands and body bound in soft cloth as well. She began to panic and tremble in fear as she attempted to understand how and why she was trapped.

Amidst her panic, a voice called from the recesses of her mind. The voice in her memory was soothing and heartbreakingly tender.

Isis, remember, when you wake up, do not panic. I will be there for you. I love you, Isis.

She remembered now. She had died. Was dead. They had promised to bring her back to the museum, to live as the others did. She forced herself to calm down and attempted to breathe through the stifling cloth. Every second that ticked by she worried more and more that perhaps she wasn't with the others. She wondered if she was in the bowels of the museum. She had to be within the same area of the tablet and she took solace in the fact that she was at least that close to Ahkmenrah.

She heard voices and the shifting of what must have been the lid to her sarcophagus. A hand suddenly caught the back of her neck and bid her to sit up. She obeyed and tugged helplessly to get her hands unbound from across her chest. The other's hands unwound the bandages around her head and she soon found the face of her love gazing down at her with all the intensity of a white-hot sun.

"Isis." He whispered her name like a prayer. He tore quickly at the bandages to free her arms and legs.

"Ahk," she returned with teary fervor.

The moment her limbs were free he pulled her body to him tightly and lifted her effortlessly from the sarcophagus. Their embrace deepened when her feet touched the ground and they reunited like the long lost lovers they were. Their lips met and separated with the slow beat of a

heart, crying out their joy and relief. When they finally paused, he placed his forehead against hers. They trembled as they breathed each other in.

"I thought they had lost you," he whispered in awe and relief.

"Death couldn't keep us apart. Did you think humans could?" Her breath dusted across his face and he trembled. He never knew how much he would miss having her in his arms until she was taken away from him. And now that she was here they would never be apart again.

"I finally have you."

"For all eternity," she said.

He smirked. "It's a start."

She threw back her head and laughed. He smiled as he felt the reverberations in her body and saw the smile on her face.

"We have clothes for you," he continued. "Tilly left them with us last night." He retrieved three small piles from the other three sarcophagi and placed them in her arms. He walked her to the bathroom in the next hall and waited impatiently outside for her to change.

"How do I look?" she asked as she emerged.

Her white, formfitting dress swept down to her feet and cinched at her waist with a slim gold belt. Her turquoise and gold jewelry matched his own but her crown did not stand tall as his did. Instead, it hugged her head and face like his mother's.

He stared at her with unmitigated love and wonder. "Like a queen," he said with a smile. "Please come with me. Much has changed and I wish to show you your new home." She took his hand and he led her back the way they came.

"How long have I been gone?"

"Five weeks."

"Five!" she echoed in surprise. "That…that felt like seconds to me."

"I'm glad. I wouldn't want you to have suffered."

"I'm sorry it took so long."

"Having you here makes every second worthwhile." He paused at the first display and allowed her to peruse the new artifacts.

"This is great. It's hard to believe that something like this could be pulled off."

"This, I think, is the best part." He called her attention to the information placard just outside the carved walls. The unfamiliarity of it intrigued her.

Among the greatest finds of the 21st Century was the finding of a second antechamber within the Pharaoh Ahkmenrah's tomb, containing that of his only wife. A priestess devoted to the Goddess Isis, she bore the Goddess' name as a gift for her loyal service. Artifacts have been discovered that claim their love for each other was so strong that not even death could separate them. The night the Pharaoh Ahkmenrah was murdered, the priestess Isis was found dead, having died the very moment her love had.

"Wow! Take that Romeo and Juliet. That must be the greatest love story to ever exist."

"It is not over yet. There is still one more piece of jewelry missing." He held up a brilliant turquoise ring. "Not many know that ancient Egyptians started the tradition of engagement rings." He took her hands. "Isis, all I have been, all I am, and all I will be is yours. Will you spend an eternity loving me as I love you?"

"You already know the answer. Yes."

With a smile, he slid the ring on her finger and kissed her.

They broke apart when his parents entered upon their moment.

"Would you like to make it official?" Merenkahre asked.

"Yes," Isis said, her smile never disappearing as they joined hands in front of the elder pharaoh.

"Under the eyes of the Gods do we grow. Under the hands of the Gods, we are nourished. Under the care of the Gods do we love. If the Gods will it, these two shall be united not only by bond and family, but by heart and soul. May the Gods bless this union and carry their souls together forever." He finished with a single tap of his staff on the ground and the happy couple shared a fervent kiss.

Shepseheret approached and embraced her new daughter.

"Welcome to the family."

After Merenkahre did the same, the older couple left the newlyweds within the carved walls. The two were far too wrapped up in each other to notice anything else.

"You know, if someone told me I was going to meet a handsome 4,000 year old mummy, fall in love with him, die, and marry him, in that order, I would have laughed in their face."

"And to think this all started with breaking rules."

"You know," she said softly, whispering in his ear, "I know where there is a seldom used employee lounge with a soft couch and a lock on the door. I also know it is our wedding night and I think anyone of any culture or era knows what that means."

"An elaborate party perhaps?" he joked as she led him along the hallways.

"If I have my way, we won't have time or energy left for a party."

* * *

Happy tears? Sad tears? No tears?

I'm surprised at how well this story did. When you search in the night at the musuem category by highest reviews this comes in at 17th. How wonderful is that?

Thank you for reading till the end. You make an author happy knowing their story is being read, (yes, I acknowledge the silent readers again!)

Thanks to all who reviewed, favorited, followed and/or PMed me.


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